Frances Tiafoe handed hefty fine for umpire outburst at Shanghai Masters, watch incident

Frances Tiafoe did, however, escape a ban.

Frances Tiafoe, usually a cool customer, courted controversy at the Shanghai Masters last month. The American directed verbal abuse at chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote after losing the third-round match to Roman Safiullin. The trigger for the incident was a time violation warning on Tiafoe’s serve, with the score tied at 5-5 in the third set tiebreaker.

Following his 7-5, 5-7, 6-7(5) loss to 61st-ranked Roman Safiullin, Tiafoe targeted the chair umpire in an expletive-filled rant. The Maryland native accused the official of stealing the match from him.

In the rule implemented mid-season, players face a 25-second time limit three seconds after the previous point to serve. Earlier, the time would begin after the umpire would update the score.

Tiafoe is not the only player to raise an issue with the sudden change. Novak Djokovic aired his opinion in his match against Alex Michelsen and again when he played against Roman Saifullin. In a verbal exchange during the third-round game with Saifullin, the Serbian queried umpire Nacho Forcadell about the wisdom of adopting the rule midway through the season.

“I get it. You guys want to speed up the pace of the tennis match. But at the same time, we’ve got to know if we’re starting the season this way. We can’t change it midway in the season,” Djokovic had said.

The 18th-ranked Tiafoe avoided a suspension, instead, he was fined a substantial $120,000. The 26-year-old was handed an on-site fine of $60,000 for verbal abuse. The ATP fines committee enhanced the penalty by another $60,000 for aggravated abuse.

Later, Tiafoe took to social media, posting an apology for his outburst, clarifying it as “unacceptable behaviour.”

The American’s public apology on Instagram, “I really apologize for the way I acted tonight. That is not who I am and not how I ever want to treat people. I let my frustration in the heat of the moment get the best of me, and I’m extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation. That’s not acceptable behaviour, and I want to apologize to the umpire, the tournament, and the fans.”

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Tiafoe fell short of adding titles to his resume in the 2024 season despite making the finals at Houston and Cincinnati. He also made it to the semi-finals of the US Open, setting the stage for an all-American last-four contest against Taylor Fritz. It was the second semi-final for Tiafoe, having achieved the result in 2022, where he lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.

The American collected $59,000 for reaching the third round of the Shanghai Masters and was docked double his winnings. The $120,000 fine represents a substantial chunk of his 2024 earnings of $2.7 million.

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