Russia’s Andrey Rublev was sensationally defaulted after screaming in the face of a line judge during his heated semi-final clash with Kazakh Alexander Bublik in Dubai on Friday.
ATP supervisor Roland Herfel was called on court where he spoke with the line judge before disqualifying Rublev with Bublik leading 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-5.
In the other semi-final, Ugo Humbert upset Daniil Medvedev, the top seed, 7-5, 6-3.
Bublik, the No.7 seed, had rallied from 2-4 and break points down in the final set and held for 6-5 when the No.2 seed Rublev, who had already been at odds withumpire Miri Bley and smashed a racquet, screamed in the face of a linesman at the change of ends.
A Russian-speaking official alerted Bley and Herfel that Rublev had yelled an obscenity in Russian at the linesman. Herfel and the official then confronted Rublev, who denied the accusation.
Rublev will lose all his points and prize money from this week and will be outside the top five rankings in the world following his disqualification.
His compatriot Daria Kasatkina came to his defence on social media by calling for video technology to be introduced into the sport.
“So you can just default a player, take his points and money away, without even checking a video replay??? What a joke, another confirmation we need a VAR in tennis and electronic line calling on all tournaments,” she posted on X.
Yuki falters
Yuki Bhambri and Robin Haase’s dream run came to a halt in doubles as they failed to get past second seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the semi-finals.
The Croat-American pair won 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) to reach their first final of the season. They lifted five tour-level trophies together last season, but had not been past the semi-finalsin three events this yearbefore Dubai.
Standing between Dodig and Krajicek and the title in Dubai are Tallon Griekspoor and Jan-Lennard Struff.The Dutch-German pair overcame Ariel Behar and Adam Pavlasek 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 to book their place in the final.
