Tennis: “Are you stupid?” Referee offended – Fabio Fognini completely loses his nerve Sports

That wasn’t the fine Italian way at all…

At his home tennis game in Rome on Sunday, Fabio Fognini (35) once again forgot his good manners and made a nasty verbal blunder to the chair referee Adel Nour.

What happened? It’s only the fifth game of the match against the Dane Holger Rune. Leading 3-1 when the Italian fires a backhand longline that Rune can’t reach. The fans cheer, Fognini celebrates the point.

But he reckoned without Nour getting down from his chair, checking the footprint and giving the ball out. Point for Rune instead of Fognini!

The Egyptian referee shouldn’t have done that better… Fognini rages – and so does the stadium.

With boos and whistles, Fognini complains loudly and with gestures to the referee, but cannot make the decision. Fognini: “You can’t give up this ball! How can you pass that damn ball out?”

Response from the referee: “Because it was over…”

Now Fognini can no longer control himself: “Are you stupid, or what? It’s so easy (to see, ed.). How can you make such a mistake?”

Nour tries to catch Fognini, explains: “The entire ball impression was over.” But he doesn’t want to know anything about that. “How can you be so bad?” Fognini adds, until he finally continues playing.

But Nour is far from resting in front of him. After the referee again decides to stop another ball from Fognini, the hotspur’s next verbal attack follows: “You are very bad.”

Fognini receives a warning for this. The already heated atmosphere on the court is boiling, Nour has to ask for silence several times so that the game can continue. In the end, all the fuss is useless. Rune wins 6:4, 6:2 and is in the round of 16.

Not the first time that tennis bully Fognini is conspicuous and abusive. In 2017, at the US Open, he described chair umpire Louise Engzell (Sweden) as a “slut” and “ugly squirrel”. There was a suspended sentence for two Grand Slam tournaments and a fine of around 80,000 euros. In 2014 in Shanghai, he pushed his opponent Wang Chuhan and gave the audience the middle finger.

Other stars such as Andy Murray (36), whom Fognini previously threw out of the tournament in Rome, have often complained about his rude behavior on court.

So now the next entry in the Italian’s inglorious file.