Russian tennis professional Andrei Rublev has been disqualified after a verbal outburst in the semi-finals of the ATP tournament in Dubai.
The 26-year-old complained loudly to a linesman after his opponent Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan scored the point for a 6-5 lead in the decisive third set. Rublyov saw the ball out of bounds.
Rublev first shouted at the linesman in English, then in Russian. At the break, the German supervisor Roland Herfel came onto the pitch, accompanied by a Russian-speaking man. He explained that Rublev had cursed in Russian. Referee Miriam Bley ultimately disqualified Rublev. He will therefore receive no world ranking points for his performance in Dubai and will fall out of the top five.
Bublik, who in his own words would have been ready to continue playing, was narrowly ahead 6:7 (4:7), 7:6 (7:5), 6:5 after around two and a half hours of play when the premature end came. He will now play the final against Frenchman Ugo Humbert this Saturday.
