Fabio Fognini disqualified from Barcelona Open for verbally abusing line judge

Fabio Fognini (Google Images)

Fabio Fognini of Italy did not finish his match on Wednesday in the second round of the 2021 Barcelona Open in Spain. That is because he was disqualified for verbally abusing a line judge in his match against Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain according to Andrew Reid of Yahoo! Sports. 

Fognini got off to a horrendous start in the match as he lost the first set 6-0. He then was on serve against Zapata Miralles at four games apiece in the second set, when the controversy occurred. Fognini, who in the past has been very vocal and emotional while on the tennis court, denied using abusive language. When hearing he was disqualified, he smashed his racquet in disgust.

The most famous disqualification in men’s tennis in recent memory came at the 2020 United States Open. That its when world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia smashed the tennis ball in disgust towards a back wall, and accidentally hit a linesperson in the throat. Interestingly another Spaniard was victorious in this match as Pablo Carreno Busta reached the quarterfinals.

We also saw a disqualification at the 2017 Davis Cup in Ottawa, Canada, when Denis Shapovalov of Canada hit umpire Arnaud Gabas in the face after being upset he lost a point to Kyle Edmund of Great Britain. Gabas needed surgery to repair a fractured bone underneath his left eye.

On Thursday however, Zapata Miralles was eliminated from the Barcelona Open. In an interesting twist, it was Carreno Busta that beat Zapata Miralles, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.

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