The Serbian tennis player Viktor Troicki unleashed a furious tirade at an umpire as the world No27 crashed out of Wimbledon.
Troicki screamed when the Italian umpire, Damiano Torella, awarded an ace to his opponent, the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Viñolas.
He snatched the ball from the ball boy’s hands and confronted the umpire, demanding that Torella “look at it”.
Have you EVER seen an outburst like this at #Wimbledon!? Viktor Troicki 😳 https://t.co/JPRDrazzC1
— BBC Tennis (@bbctennis) June 30, 2016
He shouted: “Come on, please look at it, please. Look at it.”
Troicki, 30, a friend of world No1 Novak Djokovic, then hit the ball out of the court before shouting: “You’re the worst umpire in the world. What are you doing? Did you see the ball? You’re so bad.”
He then resumed the game, which ended one point later as Ramos-Viñolas secured victory. Troicki refused to shake Torella’s hand and then resumed the heated confrontation.
“Do you know what you did? You’re horrible. What are you doing? What are you doing? Tell me what are you doing? What are you doing there?” He added: “You’re the worst ever. Do you know what you did? You’re an idiot.” Troicki reportedly then stormed into the umpires’ office to complain.
Troicki’s meltdown joins a long list of infamous tennis tantrums. John McEnroe’s notorious on-court rant at Wimbledon in 1981, with its “you cannot be serious” moment, is the most well known.
More recently, during the 2015 Wimbledon tournament, the young Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios repeatedly drew attention for his on-court behaviour. In the second set of his defeat by Richard Gasquet, he appeared to give up entirely. The crowd booed him when he began ignoring serves and plopping balls into the net.
Serena Williams, now world No1, shocked the US Open crowd in 2009 when she approached a line judge after being foot-faulted and said: “I swear to God I’m going to take this ball and shove it down your fucking throat, you hear that? I swear to God.”
The line judge reported her to the umpire, apparently believing her life to be in danger. “I never said I would kill you, are you serious?” Williams protested.
