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Stefanos Tsitsipas became the latest player to spar with a chair umpire at the 2024 Shanghai Masters. The incident happened during the Greek's third-round contest against Daniil Medvedev.
Daniil Medvedev led Stefanos Tsitsipas in the contest after taking the first set via a tiebreaker. During his second service game in the second set, Tsitsipas was slapped with a time violation after taking too long to serve and, as a result, lost his first serve. Angered by chair umpire Fergus Murphy's decision, the Greek halted play to argue his case.
He approached Murphy and claimed he was the best player on the ATP Tour when it came to serving on time and also questioned the time violation penalty. Murphy said he has no control over the clock. Tsitsipas got even more agitated by Murphy's explanation and accused him of being biased against him as he had not seen other players getting penalized for running out the time.
Murphy rebuffed the allegation and suggested that Stefanos Tsitsipas watch more tennis matches to see his peers also get time violation penalties.
Tsitsipas: “Why are you doing this to me man?”
Murphy: “The clock starts automatically.”
Tsitsipas: “I’m the best about this on tour, the most consistent player about this on tour.”
Murphy: “Just listen. It might help if you listen. The clock starts automatically. I have no control over that.”
Tsitsipas: “Why are you guys against me so much? The last few months have been terrible. I don’t understand what’s gotten into you.”
Murphy: “That’s not a correct statement. I’m not against you. I'm not against anybody.”
Tsitsipas: “I haven’t seen any of my opponents get a time violation besides myself.”
Murphy: “Well maybe if you watch more matches. We give lots of time violations.”
Tsitsipas: “Are you sure? There are some out there who are match worse than me.”
Murphy: “I’m sure they get time violations. The best thing to do is talk about this match. On that serve you were too slow. You need to keep watching the clock. You have to keep watching the clock and keep up.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas went back after the brief argument to continue the match and ended up getting broken in that service game. During the changeover, he picked up where he had left off. The 10th seed said Murphy had no "clue" about tennis and questioned if he had ever played the sport.
Murphy engaged with Stefanos Tsitsipas and replied that while he was not as good a player as the Greek, he had played tennis back in the day. Tsitsipas then insulted Murphy by saying he probably did not do much cardio and only played serve and volley.
Tsitsipas: “My issue is the double fault you just took away from me. That’s the issue. Have you never played tennis in your life? You have no clue about tennis it seems like.”
Murphy: “I have. I’m not as good as you are, but I’ve played.”
Tsitsipas: “Definitely you have no cardio. You probably serve and volley all the time. Tennis is a physical sport. We need some time over there. Show some compassion. We aren’t throwing darts out here.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas refused to continue the match until he spoke to the supervisor and had more clarity on his time violation. Murphy pleaded with him to play the match for now, but Tsitsipas insisted on talking to the supervisor.
Daniil Medvedev kept his focus amid the mayhem and emerged victorious 7-6 (3), 6-3. The Russian is now set to face off against World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 tournament on October 10.
Stefanos Tsitsipas becomes third player to spar with chair umpire at Shanghai Masters after Frances Tiafoe, Alexander Zverev
Before Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2024 Shanghai Masters had already had a couple of incidents of players getting into heated arguments with officials. First, it was Frances Tiafoe, who dropped multiple F-bombs after his third-round loss to Roman Safiullin. The American had handed a time violation and docked first serve at 5-5 during the third set tiebreaker by umpire Jimmy Pinoargote.
After the match, Tiafoe verbally abused Pinoargote on his way to the bench. The American later apologized for his behavior. Then, second seed Alexander Zverev took issue with a double bounce call by umpire Mohamad Lahyani during his hard-fought three-sets win against Tallon Griekspoor in the third round.
At 5-5 40-40 in the first set, Lahyani gave a point in favor of Griekspoor after calling a double bounce on Zverev's shot. Displeased by the decision, the German went into a tirade, accusing the umpires of messing up the tournament and even being biased against him during the Grand Slam finals.
