Tennis world rocked by 4 controversies on single day: From Frances Tiafoe's outburst at umpire to Grigor Dimitrov's confrontation with fan at Shanghai Masters
There's no dearth of drama at the ongoing Asian swing of tennis, and it reached its peak on Tuesday, October 8. A few players' antics at the Shanghai Masters and the Wuhan Open led to a day of scandal.
Frances Tiafoe and Alexander Zverev's temper tantrum against the chair umpire was tough to witness. Grigor Dimitrov almost came to blows with a fan who nearly caused him to take a tumble.
Magda Linette's callous joke came back to haunt her as she had to deal with a hostile crowd at the Wuhan Open. With that in mind, here's a brief look into the controversies that arose yesterday:
#1 - Frances Tiafoe goes off on the chair umpire after his loss to Roman Safiullin at the Shanghai Masters
Tiafoe got off to a good start against Safiullin during his third-round match at the Shanghai Masters. However, the former let go of a one-set lead, and soon found himself fighting to stay alive in the third set tie-break.
With the score level at 5-5 in the tie-break, chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote docked Tiafoe a first serve as a penalty for time violation. He urged the umpire to overturn his decision, who refused to budge. The match was over soon after that, and the American lost 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5).
Tiafoe shook hands with Safiullin at the net, and then went on an expletive-ridden tirade against the umpire while on the way to his bench. However, the American realized the error of his ways, and took to social media to apologize for his outburst.
"I really apologize for the way I acted tonight. That is not who I am and not how I ever want to treat people. I let my frustration in the heat of the moment get the best of me and I'm extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation. That's not acceptable behavior and I want to apologize to the umpire, the tournament, and the fans. I'll be better for y'all," Tiafoe wrote
#2 - Grigor Dimitrov loses his cool at a fan who almost caused him to fall
Dimitrov booked his place in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Alexei Popyrin. There was a large crowd gathered to see the Bulgarian on his way out of the stadium. However, this is where things got a little heated.
Fans jostled to get his autograph, and one such fan got too close for comfort and almost tripped Dimitrov. The latter was justifiably angry at this, as the fall could've injured him. He nearly confronted the person as well, though backed off soon enough and left the officials to deal with the perpetrator.
Watch the incident below:
#3 - Alexander Zverev gives the chair umpire a piece of his mind at the Shanghai Masters
Zverev secured a hard-fought 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (5) win over Tallon Griekspoor in the third round of the Shanghai Masters. Aside from his opponent throwing the kitchen sink at him, he felt as if the chair umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, was also conspiring against him.
Zverev's temper got the better of him during the first set. With the score at 5-5, 40-40, the umpire made a call against him, and stated that the ball had bounced twice. A video replay did confirm this, though it wasn't shown to the players. This ticked off the German, and he went on a lengthy rant against the umpire.
"How on earth are you calling that? I got the ball completely clean?" Zverev shouted. "Let me say something, you guys umpires are f***ing up the whole tournament this year. Completely."
Zverev threw his racquet after his tirade, and received a code violation for the same. This caused him to go ballistic once again, and he continued to ramble during the changeover as well.
"I’ve played more than 80 matches this year, with injuries, with illness, with everything. And I cannot be bothered to go to China in October for you to screw up this. This is not possible. I’ve been playing for nine months now," he added.
"I have a Grand Slam final, I lose it because of you guys' mistake. I’m here running my a*** off with the illness, you guys still do mistakes," Zverev said furiously.
#4 - Magda Linette gets the cold shoulder from the crowd as she tries to apologize for her insensitive joke
On her way to the Wuhan Open, Linette made a rather insensitive comment about the city. She took to social media to announce her arrival at the tournament with a reference to COVID-19, which also originated in the city. Naturally, the reaction to it wasn't positive.
"The virus database has been updated" - Linette posted on X (formerly Twitter).
During her first-round win over 11th seed Liudmila Samsonova, there were a few people in the crowd who cheered against her. Linette tried to apologize for the same during her on-court interview after her win, which was cut short.
Linette will have to deal with the crowd once again as she has now moved on to the third round of the Wuhan Open. She will take on Daria Kasatkina for a spot in the quarterfinals.