The ATP has been urged to launch an investigation into the conduct of one of the tennis officials at a Challenger tournament in Florence last week.
Gianluca Moscarella has been caught on video breaching the umpire code of conduct which states that officials must remain neutral during matches. In the second round of the tournament, he was overheard issuing advice to seventh seed Pedro Sousa during a toilet break. The gold badge umpire was heard telling Sousa in Italian to ‘stay focused and win.’
“It’s been 2 hours, I’m old and it’s hot, you are supposed to win this 6-1 6-1, you had 45 break points, stay focused and win asap.” He said.
During the 2018 US Open another umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, was subsequently punished for encouraging Nick Kyrgios during one of his matches. Lahyani was heard saying ‘I want to help you’ to the Australian. He was suspended from his next two tournaments after the ATP deemed that he composed his own impartiality as a chair.
In another incident, Moscarella was caught making inappropriate comments to one of the ball girls. Calling her ‘very sexy’ before later asking ‘Are you ok? It’s hot. Do you feel hot? Physically or emotionally?’ The context of his comments was meant to be a joke, but has been widely condemned by tennis fans on social media.
The behaviour of the Italian official, who has also previously worked at the Miami Masters and Wimbledon, is likely going to result in him receiving a suspension of some sort. Earlier this year Damian Steiner was fired for giving interviews without permission. Stainer officiated the men’s Wimbledon final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
There is yet to be any official statement from the governing bodies concerning Moscarella’s conduct.
