“You’re A Shame”- Fabio Fognini Blasts ATP for Favourable Treatment Towards Rafael Nadal

Italian star Fabio Fognini defeated Reilly Opelka in an emotionally charged match that left a foul taste in the mouth of everyone involved.

Despite how good the quality of tennis was, the abusive tirades by both the men ended up making the headlines after the five-set clash.

In fact, Fognini’s fight with the chair umpire got so ugly that he brought the Spanish star Rafael Nadal under his attack and punched his own racquet so hard that he injured his hand.

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What Did Fabio Fognini Say?

After being given a code violation for throwing his racquet, Fognini went on a rant against the Brazilian umpire.

“I can’t play with a referee who doesn’t give me tranquillity”- Fognini fumed in Italian. 

Things got uglier as he alleged that the Spanish star Rafael Nadal gets favourable treatment. Furthermore, Nadal had requested the ATP to not put Bernardes in his matches as the chair umpire in 2015.

“When (Rafael) Nadal asks for it, you (ATP)  do it, when Fognini asks for it, you don’t. When his majesty asks for it, you do it.”

He went on to call the referee a shame and started an abusive tirade.

“You’re a shame. You’re not fit for this. You can’t give me point penalty for throwing my racquet when (Opelka)  is saying f**k f**k all the time. It’s not like I’m telling you to f**k off, if I told you to f**k off, it’d be different.”

When asked by the referee to switch to English, the Italian star retorted by saying ‘I pity you’ in his mother tongue.

Meanwhile, Opelka also went into an expletive laden tirade accusing Fognini of deliberately slowing down the speed of play.

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The consequences of the match were visible on the injured hand of Fognini who punched his racquet after dropping the second set. The 32-year-old was struggling to bend his right index finger after the match.

In the end, Fognini managed to complete a stunning comeback. The Italian star won the contest 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (5).