Andy Murray, who continued his return to the ATP tour this week at the Shanghai Masters 1000, went down to Italy’s Fabio Fognini, but not before he had a long argument with his opponent in the final set.
After a well-fought win against Juan Ignacio Londero in the open round, the former world number one was up against Fognini, who is in contention for the year end Tour Finals in London.
Fognini came back from a break down to take the opening set in a tiebreaker. But, Murray fought back to win the next 6-2, and push the match into a decider. The Scottsman broke at 4-4 to have chance to serve out the match but was broken back for 5-5.
In game 11 of the third set, on the Fognini serve, during a rally where Murray was waiting for a volley at the net, Fognini made a sound during the point which had Murray wondering where it come from and look in Fognini’s direction. The Italian responded by asking Murray why he was looking in his direction.
Murray went on to break at 6-5 and gave himself another chance to serve out the match. At the crossover, there was a heated exchange between the players where Murray asked Fognini to “shut up”, even as the Italian tried to justify his own behavior and asked Murray to have a better sense of humor about it.
A visibly disturbed Murray discussed with umpire Fergus Murphy at the changeover who said he would like into matters.
While umpire Murphy spoke to Fognini at the interval, no action was taken against the Italian as may have been expected. Not only did Murray get broken again serving for the match, but was outplayed in the tiebreak by Foginini, who looked much more settled and less troubled by that time.
Watch the Murray-Fognini incident unfold here:
Murray v Fognini was… spicy ?#RolexSHMasters pic.twitter.com/HNlpsDoaCF
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 8, 2019
Interestingly, back in 2009, Murray was involved in a similar incident with Argentine Juan Martin del Potro with the same umpire Murphy at the helm. You can watch that video below.
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