Denis Shapovalov lost his cool during the first round of the Italian Open on Monday.- The Canadian yelled at the crowd to "Shut the fuck up!" as they jeered him for arguing with the umpire.
Rising Canadian
The 23-year-old, who was born in Israel to a Russian father and Ukrainian mother, was serving at 3-4 down in the second set against Lorenzo Sonego when he confronted umpire Richard Haigh for overruling an out call from a line judge to award a point to his Italian opponent.
"That's the mark right there you see," Shapovalov said to Haigh after jumping the net to speak with him.
Haigh handed Shapovalov a code violation for doing so, to which the youngster did not take kindly.
"No way! Come on I was just showing you the mark," he said. "Call the supervisor, that's bullshit! That's so unfair."
After the supervisor came and allowed Haigh's decision to stand, the crowd at the Grand Stand Arena started to boo Shapovalov as he continued to argue.
"Shut the fuck up!" he screamed at the fans, his voice breaking as he did so. Shapovalov was subsequently given a game penalty for the outburst.
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Shapovalov went on to the lose the second set, but bounced back from his tantrum to win the decider and secure a 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-3 victory.
After the match, the world number 16 said that it was one particular heckler who had gotten under his skin.
"He was just telling me to get off the court, get out of there, waving me off the court," he said.
"The reason why [the heckler] didn't get kicked out was because [Haigh] told me he didn't see what happened. That's very understandable. I feel like he kept an eye on him after that. It didn't bother me after that."
The Canadian, who was involved in a heated exchange with the chair umpire during his Australian Open defeat to Rafael Nadal in January, also conceded that he needs to learn to control his temper.
"Obviously I think it's a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. I just need to improve with handling myself about that," he said.
Shapovalov faces Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round of the Italian Open on Tuesday.