“I hope you get fired!”

The white sport of tennis is currently defiling itself. Disrespect towards the referees is increasing. The most recent examples were Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Francis Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the ATP tournament in Shanghai.

The Greek took on chair umpire Fergus Murphy on Wednesday. He warned Tsitsipas at the beginning of the second set in the match against Medvedev for exceeding the time limit. Tsitsipas did not agree with this and wanted reasons for the decision. “Why are you all against me?” the Greek countered Murphy’s explanation of why he had warned Tsitsipas.

Tsitsispas followed up. “You also have to show understanding.” Tennis is a physical sport, we don’t throw darts.”

A heated dialogue developed in which both expressed their points of view. In the end, the head referee had to come onto the court and explain to Tsitsipas that the shot clock has started automatically since the French Open.

After another game loss, Tsitsipas broke out again at the break. The target was Murphy again. “You’ve never played tennis in your life,” he rumbled in the direction of Murphy, who remained calm and replied with “I have.”

That’s not enough. Tsitsipas further teased the referee: “You don’t know anything about tennis, it seems.” Murphy replied: “I’m not as good as you, but I’ve played tennis.”

The dialogue ended with Tsitsipas lashing out at Murphy again: “You definitely don’t have stamina. You’re probably playing serve-and-volley on every single ball.”

But the big end was yet to come. Not only did Tsitsipas lose the party, he got even with Murphy after the end of the match: “I hope you get fired!” he shot at the referee at the end.

Tstitsipas’ appearance was the last in a scene of brutalization of morals in Shanghai.

Alexander Zverev scolded chair referee Mohamed Lahyani as he reached the round of 16 on Tuesday, until the Swede finally said: “It’s enough, Alexander.” The American Frances Tiafoe freaked out during his third round exit and completely lost his temper for a moment .

After his defeat against the Russian, Roman Safiullin repeatedly insulted referee Jimmy Pinoargote (“f… you, man”) and later expressed his horror at his own behavior. “That’s not who I am and that’s not how I want to behave,” Tiafoe wrote on Instagram. He apologized and said he was “extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation.”

Medvedev had previously been upset about the balls in a match and caused a scandal: Frustrated, he showed his displeasure with the playground equipment by symbolically wiping his buttocks with a ball and adding another chapter to his scandal file.

With Sports Information Service (SID)