Viktor Troicki Faces Fine After Launching Tirade At Wimbledon Umpire

Serbian 25th seed Viktor Troicki faces a fine of around 5,000 pounds ($6,600) for throwing a tantrum and launching into an rant directed at Italian umpire Damiano Torella at Wimbledon on Thursday.

Viktor Troicki Faces Fine After Launching Tirade At Wimbledon Umpire

Troicki, 30, suffered a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 loss to Spaniard Albert Ramos Vinolas after slipping to match point down on a controversial overrule by Torella. A serve from Vinolas had been called out but the decision was corrected, making it an ace. Troicki immediately became furious, carried the ball back to the chair on Court 17 and told the official to “look at it.”

“No white, look at it!” shouted the Serb, as he pleaded with the official to look for chalk dust.

Troicki then went into a complete meltdown after Torella refused to change his call.

“You’re the worst umpire in the world, you’re so bad,” screamed Troicki, who received a code violation for his behavior after smashing the ball in question out of the court.

He lost the match on the following point, but continued his tirade as Torella climbed down from his perch.

“You’re horrible, you know what you did,” the Serb said. “You are the worst ever, you’re an idiot. You didn’t see anything in the match. You made about 30 mistakes for him and for me.”

Troicki also repeated the phrase “What are you doing?” several times and finally yelled “bullshit” as he stormed off the court. The Serb insisted after the match that Torella should be the one who get penalized, not him.

Troicki believed the Italian lacked the required experience to officiate on a court where there is no Hawk-Eye replay technology.

“He should be the one who is fined, he cost me,” Troicki told reporters. “I’m not saying he cost me the match but he cost me an important point. I behaved well. I didn’t do anything until that moment.”

The Serb also claimed he spoke to the referee following the game and complained to him as well.

“I spoke to the referee after the match and I think it shouldn’t happen that such a chair umpire can be on the singles court with the men’s on grass, where there is no Hawk-Eye,” he said. “He’s not able to do a proper job, so I told him that. I was just boiling at that stage. I just couldn’t talk normally.”

His outburst recalled famous meltdowns from previous Wimbledons.

As well as John McEnroe’s widely-parodied “you cannot be serious” bombardment, the All England Club famously witnessed a Jeff Tarango rant in 1995.

The American described umpire Bruno Rebeuh as the “most corrupt official in the world” and refused to play on until the supervisor was called.

He eventually defaulted but the drama was to continue when Tarango’s wife slapped Rebeuh in the face.

After days of rainfall in London, a full slate of second-round matches was completed Thursday.

Second-seed Brit Andy Murray was the main attraction on the men’s side. Murray defeated Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. Although the Scot started down early in the opening set, he fought back and eventually gained full control of the match.

Following the match, Murray was happy with his resiliency, according to Alix Ramsay of Wimbledon.com: “The first set was tough—I went a break down. But I settled down at the end of that set and loosened up. I started hitting the ball a lot cleaner.”

He will now move on to the third round to face Australian John Millman, who defeated 26th-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire 7-6(5), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

One big surprise was Frenchman Nicholas Mahut, who beat 13th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

On the women’s side, French Open champion and second-seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain suffered a shocking 6-3, 6-2 defeat to 23-year-old Slovak Jana Cepelova. 

American Julia Boserup, 24, defeated Swiss 19-year-old Belinda Bencic, a seventh-seed. Boserup defeated Bencic 6-4 in the opening set, then 1-0 in the second, which ended there after the Swiss retired due to a wrist injury that has been bothering her for weeks.

Complete scores:

Wimbledon.com

Wimbledon.com

Article by Pablo Mena