Denis
Shapovalov Criticizes ATP Again After New Fan Incident at the
Cincinnati Open.
Just two weeks ago, the Canadian was defaulted from the DC Open during his
match against Ben Shelton following a verbal altercation with a spectator in
the stands.
This time,
the protagonist of the altercation was
Jordan Thompson during his match against
Ugo Humbert, as the Australian was attacked by a fan who allegedly had placed a
bet on the Frenchman.
Shapovalov calls out lack of protection
A Twitter
user who was present during the match on Court 4 recounted the incident
firsthand: "Two fans in the front row of Thompson vs Humbert @CincyTennis
have heckled Thompson twice now. First time Thompson was clearly
agitated."
"It
seems like Thompson just complained. Chair umpire Mo Lahyani is trying to get
their attention to signal for them to quiet down. The two young men seem to be
avoiding eye contact with him. Hopefully, they quiet down anyway."
"It's
getting more heated. Thompson is directly interacting with them after a third
roasting from the fans," the user added shortly after. "Security is
asking the man to quiet down or he will be thrown out. This is at the
changeover 6-3, 2-5 with Humbert leading. For a second time, the man in the
white shirt mentioned having a bet on Humbert and argued his case."
"I
want to see Nick Kyrgios, not Jordan Thompson!" the spectator finally said
before leaving the match, which Thompson ended up winning in a third-set
tie-break.
Later,
Denis Shapovalov commented on the post on X, calling out the ATP for not
protecting Tour players. "So @atptour how long are we going to keep
allowing these things to go on?" he wrote.