Daria Kasatkina and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina siding with Andrey Rublev amid his disqualification from the 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships for yelling at a line judge has sparked outrage among tennis fans.
Rublev locked horns with Alexander Bublik in a closely contested encounter in the semifinals of the ATP 500 event, splitting the results of the first two sets. The clash took a controversial turn at 5-5, 40-30 on Bublik’s serve in the deciding set after a crucial line call went the way of the Kazakh.
Rublev was convinced that the call was incorrect and confronted the line umpire and launched a verbal tirade in his face. A Russian-speaking official informed the tournament supervisor that the World No. 5 had used an expletive in Russian, allegedly calling the line judge a “f**king moron.” The 26-year-old was immediately disqualified from the tournament for unsportsmanlike conduct, despite his insistence that he was speaking in English and hadn’t sworn at the line umpire.
While fans welcomed the tournament supervisor’s decision to disqualify Andrey Rublev, his fellow players stood up for him. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina asserted that it was “unfair” for the Russian to be defaulted without any proof that he had sworn at the line umpire.
“Very unfair that they disqualify Rublev without first ensuring that what the line judge understood is correct. That rule should be reviewed and changed. Shameful. We need VAR in tennis. @AndreyRublev97 @atptour,” he posted on X.
Daria Kasatkina echoed Davidovich Fokina’s call for the inclusion of VAR technology and raised questions over the World No. 5’s disqualification.
“So you can just default a player, take his points and money away, without even checking a video replay??? What a joke, another confirmation we need a VAR in tennis and electronic line calling on all tournaments,” she posted on X.
Tennis fans did not take kindly to Kasatkina and Fokina contesting Andrey Rublev‘s disqualification, with several of them arguing that, regardless of whether the Russian used profanity, his conduct of berating the line umpire was unacceptable on its own.
“Davidovich and Kasatkina think that it’s okay to uncontrollably yell in the face of an official as long as you don’t curse. Big LOL,” one fan commented.
“Dasha sit this one out please. Ya boy screamed with his whole chest to a linesman in front of everybody and they mothers lol,” another fan wrote.
Another fan asserted that while Rublev was loved by his fellow players for his amiable personality, it was “ridiculous” for them not to hold him accountable for his actions.
“He’s loved by his peers because he’s one of the nicest guys on tour. But damn if he does something bad like this, can’t they just let him take responsibility for his actions? This is ridiculous,” the fan posted.
