Frances Tiafoe wasn't particularly in the mood after suffering yet another loss at the 2024 Roland Garros, and he refused to shake the umpire's hand after the match.
The American is known as the smiley character on the ATP Tour who is seemingly always in a good mood regardless of how the match is going. That might have been the case in the past, but these days, Tiafoe has been seemingly in a bad mood for a while.
The 26-year-old is not enjoying a very good year, and he's likely to drop out of the Top 30 in the coming weeks. He was in the Top 10 just last year, hoping to win Grand Slams and become one of the best players in the world.
His most recent match was against Denis Shapovalov, who is a very good player, though injuries have severely derailed his career recently. The Canadian found a bit of form in recent weeks and proved himself again by beating Tiafoe in four sets despite the rain stopping the play and losing the opening set.
After the match, which Tiafoe lost 7-6(4), 4-6, 2-6, 4-6, and shaking Shapovalov's hand, Tiafore refused to shake the hand of the umpire, which was very uncharacteristic of him.
It rarely happens these days, but every now and then, a player will refuse to shake the hands of an umpire in case something like an incident happens. This match, in particular, didn't feature anything but Tiafoe slamming the ball into Shapovalov's face by mistake, and that likely didn't cause him not to shake hands with the umpire.
He got called for a time violation in the fourth set of the match, but that also doesn't seem to be a valid reason. Maybe the American was simply not in the mood, frustrated, or annoyed by the time violation.
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