ATP Masters Rome: "Shut the f*** up!" - Denis Shapovalov messes with the audience
Denis Shapovalov (ATP No. 16) made no friends during his first-round appearance at the Masters tournament in Rome.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: May 09, 2022, 10:04 pm
On Monday, it didn't even take Fabio Fognini in the evening to get the audience in Rome in top form at the start of the tournament. Denis Shapovalov already managed to pick up a decent whistle in the afternoon. And gave the monkey sugar: "Shut the f*** up!" the Canadian yelled at the fans, after he had already been sufficiently busy with the referee and referee.
What happened? Well, Shapovalov broke a sacred tennis player rule and in his match against Lorenzo Sonego, at a score of 7-6, 3-4 and a double-fault debut, he simply climbed over the net onto his opponent's side to show a ball push. The result: point deduction. "That's the rule," said the referee. "No, it's just stupid," said Shapovalov.
Denis Shapovalov angry: point deduction "is stupid"
Shapovalov didn't give up and argued with the referee. "I didn't do anything aggressive, I just wanted to show him the print because he didn't see it," the 23-year-old continued. With whistles and boos from the spectators getting louder and louder. What finally got him completely upset: "Shut the f*** up!" Shapovalov finally roared into the big circle - which of course further upset the spirits. "It's stupid!" he finally argued further.
He then asked to expel a spectator from the stadium because he had provoked him - without success. He couldn't do this, didn't see it, the referee said.
You can watch the entire scene here.
In the end, however, Shapovalov got a grip on himself, won 7: 6 (5), 3: 6 and 6: 3, apologized to opponent Sonego during the handshake and then to the referee. "My mistake in the second set, I think I know the rules now," he said. And threw some towels into the audience for reconciliation.
Forgive and forget? We'll see: Round 2 is against Nikoloz Basilashvili.