NEW YORK _ Uh oh. A top-10 player has angrily accused the chair umpire of apparent personal bias and uncalled-for accusations of being coached during a U.S. Open match. This time, the player was No. 8 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who eventually was upset by 43rd-ranked Andrey Rublev on Tuesday. The umpire was Damien Dumusois of France.
The commotion occurred in the fourth set of Tsitsipas' 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (7), 7-5 first-round loss _ hardly as dramatic a fuss as the one that involved Serena Williams and umpire Carlos Ramos in last year's women's final. Tsitsipas, furthermore, later admitted a building frustration over his recently declining results.
After a semifinal finish in January's Australian Open, the 21-year-old Tsitsipas was beaten in the French Open's fourth round and bounced out of Wimbledon in the first round. "I don't feel inspired," he lamented in a post-match interview. "I play out on the court and I don't feel like I'm chasing something."
Rublev had broken serve to lead, 4-3, in the fourth when Dumusois instructed Tsitsipas, slow to return after a changeover, it was time to play or be penalized.
"I don't care," Tsitsipas shouted. "Do whatever you want, because you're the worst. I don't know what you have against me. Because you're French, probably and you're all weirdos."
Tsitsipas already was angry over Dumusois' warnings for coaching violations from his father Apostolos and for previous time violations. Tsitsipas said he couldn't hear his father and "the chair umpire has something against me."
Other men's action around the tennis center was about tennis: No. 4 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria was upset by Italy's 87th-ranked Thomas Fabbiano. Winners were No. 6 Alexander Zverev of Germany, in five sets over Moldova's only Open entrant, Radu Albot, and 14th-seeded American John Isner, in straight sets over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
