During the Shanghai Masters last month, US tennis star Frances Tiafoe repeatedly yelled at a chair umpire for which he was fined $120,000 as punishment.
The incident happened during Tiafoe’s loss to Russian Roman Safiullin in October. In the final set tie-break, with the score tied at 5-5, the American seemed agitated when he was given a time violation on a first serve. It was heard that Tiafoe stated, “No, no, no, no, I tossed the ball up … I was ready to serve. Dude, that’s the rule,” towards chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote. In response, the chair umpire declared, “I’m not buying it, it’s the second serve,” and then announced that it was Tiafoe’s second serve on the microphone.
After Tiafoe lost the match, the 26-year-old athlete railed against Pinoargote after shaking hands with his opponent at the net. Tiafoe shouted a variety of derogatory remarks at the chair umpire as his opponent attempted to celebrate his victory.
ATP, the men’s tennis governing organization, stated that Tiafoe had been fined $60,000 for his aggravating behaviour and a maximum on-site fine of $60,000 as well for verbal abuse by its penalties committee.
Later on, Tiafoe apologized for his behaviour on his social media, stating: “That is not who I am and not how I 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.”
He added: “That’s not acceptable behaviour, and I want to apologize to the umpire, the tournament and the fans.”
Source: CNN