Andrey Rublev defaulted from his semifinal during the Dubai Championships on Friday for yelling in the face of a line judge.
Alexander Bublik advances to Saturday’s final against Ugo Humbert of France.
Rublev took exception to what he believed was a missed call on the baseline, which gave the point to Bublik, who was up 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-5 in the third-and-deciding set.
After the point was won, Rublev, who is ranked fifth in the ATP Rankings, began yelling in the face of the line judge, who did not react. ATP supervisor Roland Herfel entered the court with a Russian speaker who said that Rublev was cursing in his native language.
“I was talking to him in English,” Rublev replied.
Rublev was defaulted by umpire Miriam Bley and Bublik’s request to continue the match was denied.
“I highly doubt Andrey said something crazy,” Bublik said afterward. “He’s not this kind of guy. But I guess that’s the rules. That’s what they did, they just follow the procedure. … There’s not much to say. With all due respect, it was a great match and both of us deserved to win. The crowd was there and we could have played one of the greatest matches against each other. It’s a pity it ended like this.”
Daria Kasatkina, a fellow Russian and ranked No. 12 in the women’s rankings, took to X to disagree with the decision.
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
— Daria Kasatkina (@DKasatkina) March 1, 2024
Due to the default, Rublev, the tournament champion in 2022 and runner-up in 2023, will forfeit ranking points and the $158,944 in prize money earned for reaching the semifinals.
