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Tennis world erupts over 'inexcusable' act: 'Utterly disgusting'

The disgraceful scenes have left the tennis world in disbelief.

Seen here, Swedish tennis star Mikael Ymer smashing his racquet at the Lyon Open.
Swedish tennis star Mikael Ymer was disqualified in his match against Arthur Fils at the Lyon Open. Pic: Tennis TV

Swedish star Mikael Ymer has been condemned across the tennis world after an extraordinary meltdown that has been described as "disgusting" and "inexcusable" from viewers. Ymer was disqualified from his round of 16 clash against Arthur Fils at the Lyon Open after smashing his racquet into the umpire's chair after a questionable line call.

The opening set was level at 5-5 when Ymer exploded over a decision from the chair umpire, who ruled that a shot from Fils had hit the line. The Swede was adamant the ball had landed out and demanded the official come down and show him the mark on the line where it supposedly landed.

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A lengthy debate ensued as Ymer became increasingly more incensed by the umpire's refusal to show him the mark on clay where the shot from his opponent had struck. “Show me the mark then. Show me the mark,” Ymer yelled. “You thought it clearly bounced on the line? Then show me the mark on the line.

“I’ve never witnessed that a ref say I’m not gonna go down and check the mark. No, it doesn’t happen.”

Ymer even referenced an incident the previous day where Richard Gasquet had requested the chair umpire to inspect a mark. To compound Ymer's frustrations, Fils went on to break his Swedish opponent to move 6-5 ahead, sparking truly wild scenes in Lyon.

As Ymer walked back to his chair, he turned his attention on the umpire's chair by smashing it multiple times with his racquet. Having put on a hole in the chair before throwing his busted racquet away in disgust, Ymer was promptly disqualified from the match.

Pictured here, the hole that Swedish tennis star Mikael Ymer left in the umpire's chair at the Lyon Open.
Swedish tennis star Mikael Ymer went on a racquet smashing rampage in Lyon that left a hole in the umpire's chair. Pic: Tennis TV

Tennis world hits out over explosive incident

While most viewers lashed the disgraceful behaviour from the Swedish player, some argued that the chair umpire was wrong to have not at least checked the mark with the Swede. “Not justifying the reaction at all but the amount of people that think a bad bounce = line hit is insane.” American tennis ace Taylor Fritz wrote on Twitter. “Crazy bounces happen all over the court and especially near lines.”

In other matches, British No.1 Cameron Norrie moved into the Lyon quarter-finals with a 6-3 6-4 victory over David Goffin. The defending champion needed less than 90 minutes to see off the Belgian and saved five break points before setting up a meeting with Sebastian Baez in the last-eight.

Victory was Norrie's 12th in Lyon and 50th overall on clay after winning the tournament last year and reaching the final in 2021. The World No.14 - who was involved in a tense encounter in his Italian Open defeat to Novak Djokovic last week - will be hoping to continue his run going in preparation for next week's French Open.

Elsewhere, top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime beat qualifier Pablo Llamas Ruiz 7-5 6-2 and American Tommy Paul edged out Frenchmen Gregoire Barrere 7-6 (6) 4-6 6-3. At the Geneva Open, Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz progressed to the quarter-finals with straight sets wins over JJ Wolf and Marcos Giron respectively.

with agencies

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