American tennis star Frances Tiafoe has apologized for his behavior at the ATP Shanghai Masters after he berated the chair umpire after losing in the third round. Tiafoe was angry that he had been given a pair of time violations, including one late in the third-set tiebreak in a match he would end up losing to unseeded Roman Safiullin.
After congratulating Safiullin with a handshake at the net, Tiafoe unleashed his fury on chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote, laying into him after a number of calls that Tiafoe had disagreed with, namely a time violation in the third-set tiebreak that was called just as Tiafoe was about to toss the ball and cost him his first serve. You can watch the clip in the link below, but fair warning on the NSFW language.
“F— you, man! F— you! Seriously man, f— you!” Tiafoe yelled. “You f—ed me in the f—ing match … Three f—ing hours and you’re gonna do that. Why? … You f—ed up the match up! Great f—ing job! F— you! Three f—ing hours I’m f—ing out here battling, only for my livelihood.”
Tiafoe later issued an apology for his outburst on his Instagram account.
“That is not who I am and not how I ever want to treat people,” Tiafoe wrote in an Instagram story. “I let my frustration in the heat of the moment get the best of me and I’m extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation. That’s not acceptable behavior, and I want to apologize to the umpire, the tournament and the fans. I’ll be better for y’all.”
Tiafoe is currently ranked No. 17 in the world and has been riding the high of his performance in last month’s US Open, where he went all the way to the semifinals and tied his deepest run ever in a Grand Slam event.
