The 2024 Shanghai Masters has made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Player outbursts on the court have overshadowed the impressive tennis on display. The current edition of the tournament has already recorded numerous such incidents.
Let’s look at some of the players who have gotten involved in massive arguments with umpires:
Frances Tiafoe
Tiafoe had an argument with the umpire during his round-of-32 clash against Russia’s Roman Safiullin. Both had won a set each, and the last set’s tiebreaker was underway with the players tied at 5-5. The service clock was about to end when Tiafoe tossed the ball in the air to escape a penalty.
However, the umpire called it a time violation, inviting an argument from Tiafoe. He cited the rules, which state that if a player tosses the ball before the clock ends, there is no time violation. When the umpire refused to budge and Tiafoe ultimately lost the match, the American ended up repeatedly shouting “F**k you” at him.
— Tennis Highlights (@TennisHigh61330) October 8, 2024
Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev was visibly upset with the quality of balls being used at the Shanghai Masters 2024. During his round-of-32 contest against Matteo Arnaldi, the Russian got engaged in a heated argument with the umpire and received a penalty.
Even during his opening game of the tournament against Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth, Medvedev voiced his complaints about the balls, referring to them as ‘ridiculous’. He also stopped the play to call the supervisor and register his issue with him.
“These balls are not good enough for professional tennis. This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and the balls are destroyed after 5 games. No pressure at all… It’s ridiculous,” he told the supervisor.
Medvedev says the balls in Shanghai benefit Jannik Sinner & Carlos Alcaraz the most
“What are you changing? The other players are changing given the balls, that you said you don’t like so much. What are you changing to get the best out of this situation?”
Daniil: “I don’t think… pic.twitter.com/8I9Tj7k2oH
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) October 6, 2024
Alexander Zverev
Zverev also got into a heated exchange with the chair umpire during his round-of-32 fixture against Tallon Griekspoor. When both players were tied at 5-5 in the first set and 40-40 in the eleventh game, the German was given a fault as the umpire claimed he hit the ball after it had bounced twice.
Visibly upset with this decision, he started arguing with the umpire, who refused to change his mind. When the game ultimately went in the Dutchman’s favor, he expressed his frustration and alleged that it was the umpires’ mistakes that made him lose the Grand Slam finals.
“Why bother playing 89 matches this year… it’s not possible, not possible. Every Grand Slam final I lose is your fault, because of your mistakes,” Zverev told the umpire.
“Every grand slam final I play I lose because of you guys”
Replay shows it was so obviously a double bounce. Even if the umpire was wrong, that’s certainly no way to behave so entitled, and then to act so shocked at the outcome of a warning for it
— Vansh (@vanshv2k) October 8, 2024
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Most recently, Stefanos Tsitsipas quarreled with the chair umpire Fergus Murphy during the second set of his clash against Daniil Medvedev. It happened when Murphy called him for a time violation, making him lose his first serve.
This made the Greek confront the chair umpire and engage in a heated argument, arguing that the umpire should show ‘compassion’ towards him, given that tennis is a ‘physical sport’ where players need time to react to serves. Tsitsipas also accused Murphy of being ‘against him’ to which the umpire repeatedly clarified that the clock starts automatically and the Greek player should keep an eye on it.
However, Tsitsipas, in his frustration, said that he wasn’t going to play if this continued and asked for a supervisor’s intervention. After a big argument, the game finally resumed but ended in the Greek’s loss as Medvedev got the better of him in straight sets.
