Shanghai Masters tensions boiled over with trio of tennis stars letting rip at umpires

The Shanghai Masters was the scene of several outbursts from players last year as the frustrations of a long season began to take their toll. Jannik Sinner will look to defend his Shanghai title as the tournament returns this week.

The reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion claimed victory in Shanghai by defeating Novak Djokovic in straight sets in 2024. Sinner's triumph denied veteran Djokovic his 100th ATP title and was the latest sign that the Italian and his contemporaries had begun to surpass the previous generation. However, much attention was paid to several top stars, including former world No.1 Daniil Medvedev, who were encountering disciplinary issues.

Frances Tiafoe

American tennis star Frances Tiafoe surprised himself following his rant at last year's Shanghai Masters. The 27-year-old repeatedly swore at umpire Jimmy Pinoargote during his defeat by Roman Safiullin, leading to a hefty fine.

The situation stemmed from Tiafoe being handed a time violation during a 5-5 tiebreak in the final set. While Tiafoe argued he had thrown the ball up with the intention to serve, umpire Pinoargote disagreed and forced him to start on a second serve. Tiafoe ultimately lost the point, and Safiullin picked up the win soon after.

This led Tiafoe to launch a tirade towards Pinoargote at the end of the match, though he later expressed regret for his actions on social media. "I really apologise for the way I acted," Tiafoe wrote on Instagram. "That is not who I am and not how I want to treat people."

"I let my frustration in the heat of the moment get the best of me and I'm extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation. That's not acceptable behaviour and I want to apologise to the umpire, the tournament and the fans."

Daniil Medvedev

Former US Open champion Medvedev became irate at an umpire during his second-round match against Matteo Arnaldi. Unlike Tiafoe, Medvedev was still able to earn the victory, but that seemed unlikely during his rant in the second set.

Medvedev had received a code violation and subsequently appeared to insult the umpire. This resulted in a point penalty, but Medvedev regained his composure to take the set.

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Explaining the reason for his outburst, Medvedev said: "What I did is, I got angry when they first called violation. So I made an impression that I'm saying something under my hand or under my mouth, how do you say it, but I didn't say anything.

"I was murmuring something like, 'Oh, you're bad, you're bad, you're bad.' Then I got the second code, which | guess could be, you know, maybe deserved, and then I went crazy. But I knew that at this moment, if I manage the moment of the match, I lost the first set, if I manage to use it in my advantage, I could do it and I managed to do it."

Stan Wawrinka

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka snapped his racket during his unusual defeat at last year's Shanghai Masters. The experienced Swiss ace was eliminated by Italy's Flavio Cobolli in the second round, but the game was most notable for a scoring mishap.

At the beginning of the final set, Wawrinka won the first point and it was correctly announced by umpire Carlos Bernardes. However, the official forgot to update the scoreboard. The subsequent point was won by Cobolli, who was wrongly declared to be 30-0 up, though neither player nor other officials noticed the error.

In the third game of the set, Wawrinka angrily snapped his racket after losing a point to give Cobolli advantage. He was given a point penalty as punishment, handing his opponent the game, and went on to lose the deciding set 6-3.