Frances Tiafoe berates chair umpire after loss at Shanghai Masters: ‘F*** you, man, f*** you’

U.S. tennis star Frances Tiafoe berated a chair umpire with a profane outburst on Tuesday after losing his third-round match at the Shanghai Masters.

Tiafoe, seeded 13th, lost a tightly contested match to unseeded Roman Safiullin (Russia), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). When the match was done, Tiafoe greeted Safiullin at the net with a handshake. He then laid into chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote.

The video below contains NSFW language

There was no handshake exchange between Tiafoe and Pinoargote. Tiafoe walked away from the net after his initial outburst. But he wasn’t done.

Pinoargote didn’t respond. He stepped down from the chair and walked away. Tiafoe continued to berate Pinoargote as Pinoargote walked away.

What set Tiafoe off?

A pair of time violations including one during the third-set tiebreak triggered Tiafoe’s outburt. Pinoargote initially called Tiafoe for a time violation in the second set.

With the third-set tiebreak at 5-5, Pinoargote called Tiafoe for another after he tossed the ball in the air but didn’t serve. The violation cost Tiafoe his first serve. Tiafoe protested.

“I tossed the ball. I tossed the ball,” Tiafoe protested. … “I tossed the ball, I’m ready to serve.”

“I’m not buying this, it’s the second serve now,” Pinoargote responded. “Second serve.”

“Dude, that’s the rule,” Tiafoe responded. “The ball goes up, how am I not ready to serve?”

Pinoargote then announced into the microphone that it was second serve.

Tiafoe then returned to the match to serve. He lost the point after an extended rally then lost another to lose the tiebreak and the match. Then came the postmatch outburst.

After cooling down, Tiafoe issued an apology on Instagram.

“I really apologize for the way I acted tonight,” Tiafoe wrote. “That is not who I am and now how I ever want to treat people. I let my frustration in the heat of the moment get the best of me and I’m extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation. That’s not acceptable behavior, and I want to apologize to the umpire, the tournament and the fans.

“I’ll be better for y’all.”