WATCH: Rune Given Psychology Class By Umpire During Heated Match
ATP
Holger Rune got some free psychology tips from experienced umpire Carlos Bernardes during a heated clash with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the Madrid Open.
Rune was battling Davidovich Fokina at the Madrid Open, and it was a very heated affair between the two players because Davidovich Fokina is a home player, and as the home player, he was getting the benefit of the doubt from the crowd.
When the Spaniard experienced displeasure about a hawk-eye call that ruled against him, the crowd naturally backed him. Davidovich Fokina was so incensed by the call that he called the supervisor because he was convinced that he was right and the hawk-eye line-calling system wasn’t.
The supervisor did arrive eventually, but it didn’t matter because the call wasn’t overruled, and Rune was awarded the point. Rune had, in the meantime, gone over to the mark to check, which enraged the Spanish crowd because they thought he went over to erase the mark, essentially destroying any chance of Fokina proving his claim.
They heavily booed him in response, which prompted umpire Carlos Bernardes to talk to Rune during the changeover, explaining that moves like that won’t do him any favors because some crowds are hard to control.
"I'm going to tell you one thing and that's it for the whole match. I told you once in Monte-Carlo, but that was quiet. There are crowds that you can not control if you do things like that."
"If you just play tennis they don't do anything else. I'm just trying to help you to go through this because I have experience here that you can not play if they start to do it."
Rune was booed during the entirety of the match, including when he left the court following the loss, because Davidovich Fokina was able to win the match in the end after three sets of battling.
