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Doubles players stunned by pre-match code violations

A women's doubles match began in bizarre fashion when three out of four players copped code violations before the first point.

Ekaterina Makarova and Eline Vesnina were taking on Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan in the quarter-finals on Tuesday when the strange moment occurred.

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Makarova, Vesnina and Yifan were all hit with violations for not making it on court in time after the warm-up.

Dabrowski and Yifan weren't particularly happy with the chair umpire. Image: Channel 7
Dabrowski and Yifan weren't particularly happy with the chair umpire. Image: Channel 7

In a new rule introduced before the Australian Open, players have exactly one minute after their warm-ups to be on court and ready to start play.

If they are not they can receive a start of game violation for time wasting.

Nick Kyrgios received a similar violation moments before his third round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

However neither of those are the weirdest we've seen so far this year, with Coco Vandeweghe receiving a code violation after she refused to take the court before she'd received a banana to eat.