Andrei Rublev loses his nerve in the semi-finals of the Dubai tennis tournament – with consequences for him
Russian tennis pro Andrey 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 line judge after his opponent Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan had won the point to take a 6:5 lead in the decisive third set. Rublev had seen the ball out of bounds.
At first, Rublev shouted at the linesman in English, then in Russian. At the changeover, the German supervisor Roland Herfel came onto the court, accompanied by a Russian-speaking man. He explained that Rublev had cursed in Russian. Referee Miriam Bley finally disqualified Rublev. As a result, he will not receive any world ranking points for his performance in Dubai and will drop out of the top five
Bublik, who said he was ready to play on, was leading by a wafer-thin margin of 6:7 (4:7), 7:6 (7:5), 6:5 after around two and a half hours of play when the match came to an early end. He will now play the final against Frenchman Ugo Humbert this Saturday.
