Frances Tiafoe was hit with two late time violations during his 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(5) loss to Roman Safiullin in round three of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Tuesday.
The first one came with the American serving at 5-5, 0-30 in the third set. Tiafoe got up to the line in plenty of time but started coughing and the clock struck zero before he started his motion. The next one came at 5-5 in the ensuing tiebreaker, when Tiafoe tossed the ball with no intention of hitting it in hopes of avoiding a time violation. He caught the toss and chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote promptly docked him a loss of serve.
Tiafoe blooped in a second serve, lost the point, and then Safiullin converted match point at 6-5 with an ace.
“I tossed the ball up,” Tiafoe said at 5-5 in the ‘breaker. “No, no no. I tossed the ball up. I tossed the ball.”
“I’m not buying this,” the umpire responded. “It’s a second serve now.”
Tiafoe: “Dude, that’s the rule. I tossed the ball up. How am I not ready to serve?”
Umpire: “Second serve.”
Two points later, Tiafoe was leaving the court amidst a flurry of expletives–for which he later apologized.
