2016 isn't exactly starting out the way Caroline Wozniacki had hoped.
The Danish tennis star's new year took another downturn during the St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy in Russia. Wozniacki lost in the second round to Dominka Cibulkova 6-4, 7-5.
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If that wasn't bad enough, the chair umpire, the WTA supervisor and Cibulkova's blackened heart all contributed to her loss, according to Deadspin.com.
Down 5-3, 15-love in the second set, Wozniacki gets in a second serve that Cibulkova returns close to the baseline.
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As the ball is called out, Wozniacki hits the ball safely back onto Cibulkova's side of the court.
Cibulkova challenged her return being called out and won the challenge, but instead of the players replaying the point, the chair umpire awarded the point to Cibulkova.
It's unlikely that chair umpire realized that Wozniacki returned the ball back in play, or else he would've had the point played again. Or the WTA should really launch an investigation into whether he was trying to fix a match against the former No. 1 player.
Wozniacki then summoned WTA Supervisor Tony Cho, who also must not have realized that Wozniacki did return the ball, making it impossible to award the point to Cibulkova. He refused to overturn the call.
Then, as Fox Sports reported, the onus of the point fell on Cibulkova.
"The question then becomes: Should Cibulkova have stepped in and asked for a replay? I mean, she knew Wozniacki got the ball back. She knew the call was wrong. Yet she stood silent. In tennis, more than any sport besides golf, you'll see players call violations on themselves or change bad calls that go against their opponents. Cibulkova let a chance to be a gracious sportswoman pass. There's a line between competitiveness and cheating, and Cibulkova was closer to the latter than the former in this case."
Wozniacki, who was ranked No. 1 in parts of 2010 and 2011, currently is No. 18 in the world but is expected to fall father in the rankings. She has a 3-3 record in 2015 after losing in the first round of the Australian Open.
The WTA has not released any kind of public statement, did not mention the incident in its match summary and omitted the point from its video highlights of the match.
Maybe Wozniacki needs a little adversity in her life. The last time she faced it --- the breakup with then-fiancé Rory McIlroy over the phone in spring of 2014 --- she responded by rising to No. 5 in the world and running a marathon, to boot.
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The disputed point comes at the 32:45 mark of the video.
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