Greece team spark Fed Cup row with Great Britain as Katie Boulter beats Valentini Grammatikopoulou

Britain’s Fed Cup tie against Greece descended into acrimony on Thursday night after visiting player Valentini Grammatikopoulou complained that poor line calls had robbed her of a possible upset against Katie Boulter.

The Greek No 2 and her Captain Anastasios Bavelas were incensed at a series of judgements that went against them in the deciding set as Boulter prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at Bath University Sports Centre.

Grammatikopoulou also wondered why Hawk-eye had not been employed at the indoor venue, where eight nations are battling to try and emerge from the Euro Africa Zone playoffs to reach the elite World Group of the women’s competition. 

Katie Boulter’s Fed Cup win on Thursday was marred in controversy with issues over line calls

Greece’s Valentini Grammatikopoulou felt the match was ‘unfair’ as she questioned decisions

The 21-year-old was left furious at a crucial stage in the match when Boulter’s shot landed in

Along with captain Anastasios Bavelas,she took issue with what she felt were ‘unfair’ calls

Two of the disputed calls in the third set which went in the British player’s favour were in the pivotal game 3-2, which Boulter ended up winning to take a decisive lead. One of them was an overrule from the chair by German umpire Evelina Oehme on which the evidence from TV cameras was inconclusive.

‘This referee (umpire) was not so good so I’m really disappointed in that in Fed Cup,’ said Grammatikopoulou. 

‘It’s really unfair to play like this. I’m not afraid to lose. It’s nice to play against countries and she deserved to win but let’s play fair. That’s why we play tennis.

Bavelas was animated as he suggested the shot to give Boulter break point was definitely long

While both players had grievances in the tie, Boulter did not feel the line calls proved decisive

‘I know Hawk Eye is from Britain so we were a little bit surprised that they didn’t put it here because the thing was made in the country, so it would be nice to have it for the next time. If I want to lose, I want to lose nice.’ 

It would, however, be unusual for the line calling system to be installed for a four day competition like this, which despite healthy crowds is expensive to stage. Putting Hawk Eye on just one court would cost well in excess of £50,000 for the four day event.

Boulter did not feel the calls were decisive, saying: ‘There were a couple of bad calls here or there, whether they were good or bad I don’t know, there was a let that I thought wasn’t called, it goes both ways.’

Ultimately the home player, ranked nearly 100 places higher in the world at 83, was able to come back from an early break down in the decider to force the win against the plucky Greek, who with Bavelas had remonstrated at length after the disputed calls.

Jo Konta faced Greek No 1 Maria Sakkari in the second match of the head-to-head matches

Sakkari is an impressive player on the women’s circuit and proved a tricky opponent in Bath

Following on from them Jo Konta was taking on Greek No 1 Maria Sakkari to try and clinch the tie for Great Britain, cheered on by another sold out crowd.

With the structure of this event being two round robins of four teams, GB will take on Hungary on Friday in the hope of emerging as the top team of their league.

If they can do that they will play the winners of Serbia and Croatia, who face each other with the winner sure to be the top team from Group B on Friday.