Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev has been disqualified after screaming in the face of a line judge in Dubai.
Rublev, 26, was defaulted for unsportsmanlike conduct during Friday’s semi-final at the Dubai Championships, allowing rival Alexander Bublik to advance to the final.
Second-seeded Rublev lost his cool after Bublik won a point to take a 6-5 lead in the deciding set.
Rublev immediately pointed to the baseline, walked to the line judge and shouted in his face.
ATP supervisor Roland Herfel came onto the court, accompanied by a Russian speaker, who said Rublev had sworn in his native language.
Rublev insisted he had spoken to the umpire in English and had not sworn, but he was defaulted by chair umpire Miriam Bley.
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.
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Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina 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 meet Frenchman Ugo Humbert in the final, after Humbert beat top seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
