Foul-mouthed tirades mar Fognini’s epic win
MELBOURNE: Italian firebrand Fabio Fognini came through an intense five-set epic at the Australian Open on Tuesday in a match overshadowed by expletive-laden rants at the umpire, who was slammed as “pathetic”.
The 12th seed was two sets down when his first round clash against giant American Reilly Opelka was halted by rain on Monday.
They returned under blue skies on Tuesday when Fognini emerged a 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5) winner but with an injured hand after hitting his racquet in anger. The injury was testament to a niggly affair with no love lost between the players.
When Opelka felt Fognini got away with time-wasting and not being penalised for throwing his racquet, he confronted umpire Carlos Bernardes.
“Let me ask you something, real quick,” an incensed Opelka said, before aiming a volley of swear words at the official. “You’re pathetic. You give me one warning after one throw. He’s thrown his three or four times, bro,” he added.
Fognini, who lost his temper several times on Monday, also had strong words for the umpire, ranting in Italian and gesturing with his hands, apparently over a time violation. He reportedly told Bernardes: “You’re not fit for this.”
Asked about it later, Fognini, who had a nasty red mark across the knuckles on his racquet hand, did not want to dwell on the angry exchanges. “It was not my problem,” he said, preferring to focus on his comeback, which saw him withstand 35 aces from the 6ft 11ins (211cm) Opelka.
“I was lucky that the rain came on the right time. Yesterday he was playing better than me,” he added. “This kind of player is probably one of the worst first round matches. Really tough.”
Asked whether the red mark was a burn, Fognini relied: “It’s okay, I hit the racquet. Yes (it hurt) a little bit. Especially this finger,” he added, pointing to his right index finger.
Opelka admitted his rant at the umpire didn’t help his cause against the Italian hothead. “No, not at all. It hurts me,” he said.
“It’s a negative emotion, especially against a guy like him. You want to keep him out of the match as much as possible. You don’t want to engage with a guy like that. It’s definitely not a positive thing.”
CAREER COMEBACK SLAM
Credit Fabio Fognini with a career Grand Slam of comebacks: His rain-interrupted victory across two days gave the 12th seeded Italian a total of eight wins in matches after dropping the opening two sets.
And now that he’s done it at the Australian Open, Fognini has a full collection, with at least one such reversal at each of the four Major tournaments. According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), only 11 other men have done it at each Slam, a group that includes Roger Federer, Rod Laver and Boris Becker, but not Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic.