I can't agree on that one. Jordan was still adjusting, Fischer was rushing him with an early serve. Lifting his foot was not part of his movement to play the return, it was a normal adjustment to get into ready position. For me a bad call - while it is true that players arent allowed to move their feet before the serve is struck, the assumption is that both parties are ready which was arguably not the case here. Had Jordan raised his hand and refused to receive, Fischer should've had to repeat the service, at least if the Umpire was thinking clearly.
The rule CLEARLY states, that a player is ready for service, when an attempt of service is made, which he certainly did as well. If he wasn't truly ready, it is his own fault for not putting his hand up then. You can't blame that on Joachim or the umpire. It's simple as that.
I didnt blame Fischer, in fact I didnt blame anyone. I just said that I didnt agree with the call. He was adjusting and Fiscber served right after he did, so he played the return - his foot movement did nothing to gain him any sort of advantage and didnt look like it was intended to, either.
As an umpire, we have to follow the rule of the law. If a shuttle is flying 5 feet out, and the player reaches out with his racket to catch the bird and bring it onto the court faster, unfortunately is a fault. There's no bending the rules and be like "oh it was heading way out, so he should be allowed to catch the bird and not get penalized". We start bending rules and soon people will start to take advantage.
Hm maybe I need to watch it again, what I saw was him moving his foot right before Fischer started his racket's forward motion. But maybe that wasnt right, idk.
