Umpires issuing warnings to tennis players are an everyday occurrence, but Marcos Baghdatis has taken it to a whole new level.
During his fourth round match against Gael Monfils at the US Open, the Cypriot received a warning during one of the changeovers after bizarrely playing with his mobile phone. The former Australian Open runner-up protested his innocence, arguing that he wanted to see what the time was on his phone.
Baghdatis just got a warning for scrolling through his iPhone on a changeover.
“What if I want to check the time? I cannot check the time?”
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) 4 September 2016
It wasn’t until after the match that his story slightly changed. He said he picked up his phone because he wanted to message his wife, an action that he didn’t expect to receive so much media attention for.
“I never wrote a message to anybody during a match before, but I thought, why not?” He said.
Baghdatis’ on court antics has diverted the attention away from what was a disappointing performance from him. Managing to get only 36% of his first serves in, the 31-year-old went out 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, to Monfils.
“I think I had the worst day of my life on my serve,” Baghdatis candidly admitted.
“Against Gael, if you don’t get some free points and have to rally — I tried to rally but he was getting so many free points on his serve, I had so much pressure on my serve. Honestly it was very tough out there.”
Monfils could play Rafael Nadal in the next round, a player that he has described as ‘a legend of the sport’. Nadal plays Lucas Pouille in his fourth round match.
