Brace yourself for the heated scenes in Shanghai! The Greek superstar, Stefanos Tsitsipas, is currently taking Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the R16 of the Shanghai Masters. Medvedev won the first set by 7(7)-6(3) and even in the second, he has now taken a lead of 4-3. However, that’s not the only hot topic at the moment. Fans were taken by surprise after seeing Tsitsipas getting engaged in a heated exchange with the chair umpire, Fergus Murphy, during the match. What all the fuss is about, though?

The controversy erupted when Stefanos Tsitsipas requested the supervisor to intervene during the second set, with the score at 2-2. Tsitsipas felt that the umpire had unfairly given him a time violation after his serve was broken. Stefanos Tsitsipas was heard asking the umpire, “Why are you doing this to me, man?” Then the chair umpire replied to him, saying that the clock starts automatically. Tsitsipas further went on to claim, “I’m the best about this on tour, the most consistent player about this on tour.” However, the chair umpire looked literally unmoved by all these statements. He further advised him, “Just listen. It might help if you listen. The clock starts automatically. I have no control over that.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas wasn’t too pleased with all these explanations! He further added, “Why are you guys against me so much? The last few months have been terrible. I don’t understand what’s gotten into you.” After hearing this, the umpire clarified that he was not against him or anybody. However, the Greek went on arguing with him by claiming that he hadn’t seen any of his opponents get a time violation besides himself. “Well, maybe if you watch more matches. We give lots of time violations,” the umpire replied. Tsitsipas then pointed out that there are some out there who are much worse than him.

“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 watch the clock. You have to keep watching the clock and keep up,” said the umpire. After that, Stefanos Tsitisipas went back to serve and got broken. Yet again, Tsitsipas came back to the umpire’s chair and continued arguing: “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.” Then the umpire gave back to Tsitsipas saying, “I’m not as good as you are, but I’ve played.”

In reply, the 26-year-old said, “Definitely you have no cardio. You probably serve and volley all the time. Tennis is a physical sport. We need time over there. Show some compassion. We aren’t throwing darts out here.” Then Stefanos Tsitsipas was seen asking for the supervisor.

In a heated third-round match against Roman Safiullin, Frances Tiafoe was penalized for a time violation during a third-set tiebreak. The penalty cost him his first serve, and Safiullin eventually won the point and the match. After the loss, Tiafoe expressed his frustration towards umpire Jimmy Pinoargote after greeting the Russian with a typical post-match handshake.  

“F— you, man!,” said Tiafoe. “F— you! Seriously, man. F— you! You f—ed me out of the f—ing match!” the American said to the umpire. Tiafoe continued to criticize Pinoargote, even threatening to have him blacklisted for future matches. Although Tiafoe issued an apology later on, the damage was already done. Even Daniil Medvedev wasn’t too far from such heated on-court exchanges.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ fierce rival Daniil Medvedev’s controversial incidents in Shanghai

There has been a lot of talk between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev’s relationship and their verbal exchanges in the past. For example, one Tsitsipas admitted that their “chemistry definitely isn’t the best that you can find on the Tour.” On the other hand, Medvedev firmly claimed, “We don’t have a relationship.” This was their 14th meeting on the Tour, so temperatures were expected to rise a bit higher than what we have seen in other matches. Thankfully, nothing much was seen in between the two players, but the chair umpire perhaps had a bitter experience from this clash.

During his R64 match against Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild, we saw him being critical about the tennis balls. He claimed the tennis balls used in the Shanghai Masters lost their quality too quickly during the match. Then later on, in his R32 match against Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, Daniil Medvedev was seen getting into a heated exchange with the umpire after he was handed a code violation for seemingly insulting the official in that match.

While clarifying the whole incident later on, he said, “What I did is, I got angry when they first called violation. So I made the impression that I was saying something under my hand or under my mouth—how do you say it?—but I didn’t say anything; I was murmuring something like, ‘Oh, you’re bad, you’re bad, you’re bad. Then I got the second code, which I guess could be, you know, maybe deserved, and then I went crazy.” No matter whether they win or lose, both Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas never fail to entertain the crowd, isn’t it?