Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas became the latest player to lash out at a chair umpire about the serve clock's quick turnaround against Daniil Medvedev in Shanghai.
It comes one day after world No.15 Frances Tiafoe directed abuse at umpire Jimmy Pinoargote after receiving two serve clock warnings and losing a first serve.
Having conceded the opening set, Tsitsipas served with an early break in the second set when he was suddenly pulled up for taking longer than 25 seconds to serve.
"I’m the best about this on tour, the most consistent player about this on tour," Tsitsipas told umpire Fergus Murphy.
"Why are you guys against me so much? The last few months have been terrible. I don’t understand what’s gotten into you."
Murphy replied by saying: “That’s not a correct statement. I’m not against you or anybody,” while also explaining “the clock runs automatically.”
The back-and-forth argument continued as Medvedev was forced to wait on the baseline.
“I haven’t seen any of my opponents get a time violation besides myself,” said Tsitsipas before arguing “there are [players] out there who are much worse than me.”
Clearly in no mood to change his opinion on the issue, Murphy replied: “I’m sure they get time violations. The best thing to do is talk about this match. On that serve you were too slow. You need to watch the clock. You have to keep watching the clock and keep up.”
Play continued shortly afterwards only for the two-time Grand Slam runner-up to get broken back - which included a wayward double fault.
“My issue is the double fault you just took away from me. That’s the issue. Have you never played tennis in your life?”
The umpire responded: “I have. I’m not as good as you are, but I’ve played,” which led to a fiery reaction from Tsitsipas.
“Definitely you have no cardio. You probably serve and volley all the time,” he said. “Tennis is a physical sport. We need time over there. Show some compassion. We aren’t throwing darts out here.”
After a five-minute delay talking with the tournament supervisor, Tsitsipas played out the remainder of the match to lose 7-6(3) 6-3.
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