Andy Murray and Fabio Fognini are engaged in a heated exchange at the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday, with the former world number one angrily telling the Italian to shut up.
Murray, who is making his comeback from hip surgery, eventually lost 7-6(4) 2-6 7-6(2) in a bad tempered affair.
The match was soured after Fognini shouted midpoint, just as Murray was about to hit a volley at the net.
The former world number one complained that Fognini, who had earlier been handed a code violation for hitting a ball into the stand and throwing his racket at a court-side chair, had called out during a rally and Murray expressed his anger to umpire Fergus Murphy.
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"You say the same to everyone," Murray fumed at Fognini as the two changed ends.
"You say the same to everyone, it doesn't matter who you're playing."
Murray repeatedly attempted to engineer conversation with Murphy, claiming "he [Fognini] does it to everyone". Fognini attempted to intervene but was told to "shut up" up by his opponent.
Murray explained his frustrations at his post-match press conference.
"I had a volley on top of the net and someone made a noise - I didn't know who made the noise," he said.
"I looked in the direction of where the noise came from. He then told me, 'stop looking at me, what are you looking at me for?'
"I was like 'Iwas just about to hit a shot and someone made a noise.'
"He then was telling me to stop looking at him. Normally, when someone shouts in the middle of a point, it's pretty rare that this happens.
"And then he told me to stop complaining, to have a sense of humour. Neither of us, in that moment, were in a joking, laughing kind of mood.
"That was the issue that I had."
Watch the full incident here.
Murray v Fognini was... spicy 😳#RolexSHMasters pic.twitter.com/HNlpsDoaCF
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 8, 2019
If anything, the exchange, appeared to disrupt Murray more as when he came out to serve for the match he was promptly broken before Fognini ran through the tie-break to advance.
At Wimbledon earlier this year, Fognini created global headlines for an angry outburst during his loss to Tennys Sandgren.
In Italian, he hit out at the "damn English" before saying "I wish a bomb would explode on this club."
He later gave a non-apology, saying: "If I offended anyone, I apologise. That definitely wasn't my intention."
In 2017, Fognini was hit with a (AU) $132,202 fine and given a suspended Grand Slam ban after a misogynistic rant at a female umpire.
