Tennis star totally loses it and screams at crowd to ’shut the f*** up’

Tennis star Denis Shapovalov lost his cool with the crowd during his first-round match at the Italian Open, screaming for them to "shut the f*** up."

A heated row with the umpire broke out on Monday while Shapovalov faced Lorenzo Sonego. Shapovalov had already received a warning for crossing the net which resulted in him being handed a point penalty during a crucial moment.

The umpire told Shapovalov, “that’s just the rule”, and the 23-year-old quickly fired back: “No, it’s not, stupid.”

The crowd became increasingly frustrated and lost patience with the pair's back-and-forth, prompting them to erupt into boos. The Canadian then punched the air and told the crowd to "shut the f*** up."

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This isn't the first time Shapovalov has faced controversy. He was disqualified from a Davis Cup tie match with Kyle Edmund in February 2017 after angrily smashing a ball in anger. The ball hit umpire Arnaud Gabas and gave him a fractured eye socket.

“It was very tough at the time - it is still always in the back of my head in everyday life,” Shapovalov said weeks later. “I skipped the next tournament. I didn't want to get out of bed.”

Many social media users have slammed his outburst as "childish", with one adding that: "These were not the actions of a great match player, not least because he was a setup and there was no need to lose his focus. It also turned the crowd even more against him. He made life unnecessarily difficult for himself."

Another added: "I wonder why he wasn’t penalized over his immature and unprofessional language."

Shapovalov was 4-3 down in the second set following his tiff with the umpire and the crowd.

Luckily for the tennis ace, he eventually came around and won the third set 6-3. Shapovalov took three hours and 11 minutes to win the match as the crowd finally settled down and stopped booing him.

Shapovalov will return to the court on Wednesday to compete in the Round of 32.

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