Wimbledon was engulfed by scandal on Thursday with Ivo Karlovic accusing officials of cheating him out of victory against home hope Andy Murray.
Croat giant Karlovic was called for 11 foot faults in his 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-6 (7-4) loss and accused All England Club line judges of deliberately attempting to ease the British player’s path through the tournament.
“I feel cheated. On a Grand Slam, Centre Court,” said 33-year-old Karlovic.
“It was outrageous. It’s Wimbledon and they do this. This is bullshit.
“In my whole life, ever since I was eight years old, I didn’t do this many foot faults. It was like 11.
“The whole credibility of this tournament went down for me. I’m angry about it, a little bit pissed, because I don’t expect it here. Even though it is against an English guy who they always want to win.”
Murray, the fourth seed, admitted he was surprised to see so many foot faults called against the big-serving Croat.
“If he wasn’t foot faulting then he has a right to be upset, because there was a lot of them. But if he was, then you can’t do it. It’s not allowed,” said the Scot, who has been a semi-finalist in the last three years.
Murray will tackle Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus for a place in the last 16.