It’s a common enough occurrence at sporting events these days: the umpire warning spectators to turn off their phones to avoid distracting players. But on Sunday it was an athlete being admonished after Marcos Baghdatis admitted texting his wife during his defeat to Gaël Monfils at the US Open.
Baghdatis was seen fiddling with his phone during a changeover in the second set and was given a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct by the chair umpire, Alison Hughes. The use of phones during matches is prohibited on the professional tour. At the next turnover Baghdatis disputed the warning with Hughes. “I cannot look at the time? [What] if I want to look at the time?” he asked.
But after the fourth-round match, which he lost in straight sets, the Cypriot player admitted he had actually been attending to a more personal matter. “I was just writing a message to my wife,” he said, smiling. “I mean, there is rules, so I guess I broke the rules. So I got a warning for it,” he added.
The 2006 Australian Open finalist would not divulge what was in the message when pressed by reporters. “No way I’m going to share what the message was,” he said. “Nice try, though. No way.”
Monfils’s victory put him into the US Open quarter-finals for the third time in his career. He is now 18-2 since being beaten in the first round at this year’s Wimbledon. The Frenchman also resorted to unusual tactics of his own during the match, at one point attempting to tie his shoes during a rally.
