With the Australian Open getting plenty of traction this fortnight, a junior tennis tournament has certainly grabbed some of the headlines at the start of the weekend.
On Saturday, a 13-year-old Swedish player, William Repakis, was disqualified from a prestigious junior tennis tournament for unsportsmanlike conduct. Repakis was playing Rafael Thao Keuang of France at the Les Petits As World Championship.
This is one of the Super Five categories of tennis tournaments in the U-14 circuit on the European Junior Tour and normally pools together the finest young talent aged 12 to 14. It is held in Tarbes, France.
Players such as Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Kim Clijsters, Martina Hingis, Jelena Ostapenko, and Bianca Andreescu feature on the roll of honor's list and have gone on to become Grand Slam champions on the senior tour.
But a dramatic sequence of events ensued in a very important phase of the match on Saturday. Repakis was already leading by a set but was a break double break down in the second. His opponent was serving to consolidate the lead and take a 4-0 advantage.
But at 3-0, 40-40, Rafael Thao Keuang hammers a forehand down the line that, on replay, looks clearly out. But not according to the chair umpire who called it in. Instead of getting a break back point, Repakis was about to go 0-4 in the second set.
Bamboozled by the umpire's contentious call, he threw his racket and put his hands all over his head. Repakis could not believe the call and tried to convince the umpire that the ball was indeed out by at least some centimeters.
Repakis then lost control of his emotions and flipped off at the chair umpire, which was an angry gesture in retaliation for his absurd call. The umpire would stop play for some minutes to brief the tournament supervisor of the Swede youngster's actions.
After the consultation between the two heads, Repakis was disqualified and broke down in tears and whispered, "F**king lying," as he thudded his racket onto the turf for a second time while walking away from the scene.
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