Tennis stars and Chinese fans rally around Zhang Shuai after Budapest controversy

Chinese tennis player Zhāng Shuài 张帅 has received an outpouring of support from athletes and sports fans at home following her tearful exit from a recent match in Budapest, Hungary, where she suffered a panic attack after a disputed call by the umpire.

The incident took place on Tuesday during Zhang’s round of 32 match at the Budapest Grand Prix, a tournament held by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). The match was tied 5-5 in the opening set when Zhang — who entered the tourney as the second seed and ranked No. 28 in the world — sent a ground-stroke crosscourt to the right-hand side of her opponent, Amarissa Toth, an unseeded Hungarian.

Although the ball appeared to be in, with it catching a clear chunk of the line, the line judge called it out. Zhang immediately protested, but the chair umpire did not change the decision. “No way! That ball is on the line,” a clip shows the 34-year-old Chinese player pointing at the mark while calling out to the head umpire.

The match continued for another point before Zhang argued her case again with the umpire. As she demanded to have a tournament supervisor review the call, her 20-year-old opponent walked up to the ball mark and rubbed it away with her shoes. “Wait! Wait! Wait! Keep the mark!” Zhang shouted in reaction. “What are you doing? Why would you do that?”

“Because you are making problems. That’s why,” Toth responded. Meanwhile, Zhang endured boos from Toth’s home crowd. One person in the audience screamed, “Time violation,” to which Toth was seen giggling.

While trailing 6-5 in the first set, Zhang sat crying and looked devastated on the bench. She ended up retiring from the match after shaking hands with the main umpire and her opponent. On her way out of the court, Zhang pointed at the crowd in anger as they cheered for her defeat. Toth raised her arms to celebrate her victory.

I went to check the controversial point between Shuai Zhang and Kiara Toth and I really don't have words for how bad the umpire was for this mark. @WTA it's really time you do something and investigate these, they can't make such big mistakes at this level. This is pure robbery pic.twitter.com/2jr6MY3tDU

— LorenaPopa 🕵️‍♀️🎾 (@popalorena) July 18, 2023

Shortly after the match, Zhang took to social media to air her grievances. “All efforts on practice was wrong, because when you wanted hitting closer to the line, even touched the line, but still called OUT. I love you guys and all girls who supporting me and standing my side,” Zhang wrote on Twitter while posting a video of Toth erasing the ball mark.

All efforts on practice was wrong , because when you wanted hitting closer to the line , even touched the line still OUT …..

I love you guys and all girls who supporting me and standing my side pic.twitter.com/ZZt28KdbRE

— Shuai Zhang (@zhangshuai121) July 18, 2023

In light of the scandal, Zhang has received a great deal of support from tennis fans and professional players, including Australian doubles star Ellen Perez and recent Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur.

Well that's a quick way to lose respect from your peers. I'm actually shook by the level of disrespect from this girl. https://t.co/nBB1mBCh9A

— Ellen Perez (@EllenPerez95) July 18, 2023

All the support to Shuai ❤️
This is not acceptable. https://t.co/AjHJQKHYLo

— Ons Jabeur (@Ons_Jabeur) July 19, 2023

zero respect for this Toth girl. ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so so so mad. I feel so bad for Shuai 🙁 https://t.co/34UerpO9eL

— Daria Saville (@Daria_gav) July 18, 2023

Absolutely disgusting behavior.
Shuai is a better person than a lot of us for shaking the ref and that girls hand.
But then again it’s Shuai we are talking about , ofc she did. https://t.co/GVcQ1NoPKe

— Ajla Tomljanovic (@Ajlatom) July 18, 2023

Zhang also posted about the incident on Weibo, writing, “When I get mistreated, I have to tolerate it. If I don’t tolerate it, I’ll be criticized for having bad manners. If I get riled up, I will be criticized for being big-headed. Someone who’s good at handling situations like this please tell me if you should get angry or not.” The post so far has racked up over 16,000 likes and nearly 2,500 comments, with an overwhelming majority supporting her decision to quit the match and encouraging her to combat “unfairness.”

Meanwhile, Toth told state radio, “I didn’t understand why she made such a fuss about it, that she wanted to overrule the umpire’s decision. I don’t understand why she didn’t accept it, all in all, it was she who was looking for trouble.”

“The unfortunate incident that took place yesterday at the Hungarian Grand Prix and subsequent posts are being reviewed and will be addressed,” the WTA said in a brief statement Wednesday evening, in which it also added it “has zero tolerance for racism in any form or context.” The China Project reached out to the WTA but didn’t get a reply.

The organizer of the Budapest Grand Prix appeared to be aligning itself with Toth. On the tournament’s official Facebook page, in response to a comment about Zhang, the administrator wrote in a now-deleted message: “That’s a totally stupid comment. She wiped the mark more than 5 minutes after the whole issue came up and they have already played the next point. The chair empire checked the mark long before and the decision has been made. She wiped the mark avoiding any further argument in case a ball gets there again not using that mark.”

In response to another person, the administrator clapped back in Hungarian, saying that “the Chinese are manipulating the world with a manipulatively edited video.”

“[Toth] may not have behaved properly in all situations, but she did not do anything that could be called a violation of honesty,” the administrator wrote in a now-deleted post.

Zhang is a two-time major champion in women’s doubles, having won the 2019 Australian Open and the 2021 U.S. Open, both alongside Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur. Tuesday’s defeat marked the 13th consecutive loss for Zhang as a singles player. She has been open about her mental health struggles in the past few months.

At the French Open in May, Zhang broke down in a press conference, revealing that she struggled to cope following the death of her grandparents this year and a string of lackluster performances on the court. She reportedly has a rocky relationship with Chinese sports authorities and hasn’t returned to her home country for three years. Despite being one of the most prominent tennis players from China, she was not selected for the Chinese contingent heading to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The exclusion was likely connected to her decision to play in the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, which ended just 11 days ahead of the Olympics.