Denis Shapovalov screams ‘shut the f*** up’ at Italian Open crowd as umpire row boils over

Denis Shapovalov screamed “shut the f*** up” to the Italian Open crowd during his first round match with Lorenzo Sonego on Monday after a row with the umpire boiled over. The shocking incident occurred as Shapovalov was battling to stay in the second set of the showdown after winning the first set following a tiebreak.

Shapovalov had already received a warning when he was given a code violation for crossing the net. That resulted in the Canadian being handed a point penalty at a crucial moment in the second set – and the ace wasn’t a happy man.

“I was just showing you the mark,” a furious Shapovalov told the umpire as he defended his decision to cross the net. The altercation resulted in the supervisor being called as the argument continued. “That’s just the rule,” replied the umpire, before Shapovalov hit back with: “No it’s not, it’s stupid.”

The Italian Open crowd then appeared to lose patience with Shapovalov as they noisily booed his behaviour. And Shapovalov was ultimately unable to keep his emotions in check as he turned to the crowd, punched his fist around and shouted the profanity in their direction.

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Shapovalov is no stranger to controversy and was disqualified from a Davis Cup tie match with Kyle Edmund in February 2017 when he smashed a ball in anger and it ended up hitting umpire Arnaud Gabas, who suffered a fractured eye socket.

“It was very tough at the time – it is still always in the back of my head in everyday life,” the player said weeks later. “I skipped the next tournament. I didn’t want to get out of bed.”

But in January he was in hot water again after branding umpire Carlos Bernardes “corrupt” during his Australian Open quarter-final defeat to Rafael Nadal. “He’s not ready to play,” the player told Bernardes as he called for him to penalise the Spanish superstar. “Are you kidding me? You guys are all corrupt, you guys are all corrupt.”