Andrey Rublev was disqualified from the Dubai Tennis Championships on Friday in a scene in which he was accused of swearing at an official in Russian which he denied doing.
Rublev, the fifth-ranked player in the world, was down, 6-5, in the decisive third set to Alexander Bublik in the semifinals of the tournament and confronted a line judge during the changeover, berating him about a ball that he believed Bublik had hit out.
Rublev was arguing with two officials, one of whom spoke Russian.
The one who spoke Russian told the other that Rublev had said “f–king” during his tirade in his native language, and Rublev insisted this was not true.
“I didn’t say f–king. What do you mean f–king?” Rublev asked incessantly in English.
Rublev was defaulted from his match against Bublik.
He shouted at the line judges face because of a call he didn’t agree with.
Andrey says he didn’t say any profanities to the line judge in Russian.
“This is a huge [misunderstanding]. I swear to God. I didn’t say it!”
After the chair umpire, Miriam Bley announced that Rublev had been disqualified, Bublik was perplexed.
Rublev had won the first set in a tiebreaker, and Bublik won the second, also in a tiebreaker.
After the disqualification, Rublev began packing up his gear in disgust, as the crowd booed vociferously that they would not get to see the culmination of the thrilling match.
Bublik, from Kazakhstan, won the match 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-5, while his Russian opponent will lose all his ranking points and prize money from this week.
Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina, 12 in ranking in women’s tennis came to the defence of her compatriot, writing on X: “So you can just default a player, take his points and money away, without even checking a video replay?
“What a joke,” she said, describing the incident as “another confirmation we need VAR (video assistant referee) in tennis and electronic line calling on all tournaments”.
Bublik will face the winner of the other semifinal matchup, Daniil Medvedev versus Ugo Humbert.
