Frances Tiafoe issued a statement after delivering an absolutely NSFW-filled outburst at the Shanghai Masters as the American insisted cursing out chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote multiple times doesn’t really show the kind of person he is.
After making it past his opening match in China, the No. 13 seed lost a third-round thriller after 61st-ranked Roman Safiullin handed him a 5-7 7-5 7-6 (5) loss in just over three hours of play.
At 5-5 in the deciding set tie-break and with the shot clock expiring for the American to serve, he tossed the ball in the air but the umpire didn’t buy it, hitting him with a time violation. And for Tiafoe, it was his second time violation as he was previously slapped with one late in the second set. After losing that point on his serve and Safiullin going 6-5 up, the world No. 17 also lost the following point as the Russian went on to complete a win.
Moments later, fans in the stands had a chance to witness what was probably one of the most stunning rants in years. Warning: NSFW language.
Frances Tiafoe© X screenshot
“F*** you, man. F*** you. Seriously man, f*** you. You f***ed me the f***ing match. Three f***ing hours and you’re going to do that. Why? You f***ed the match up. Great f***ing job. F*** you,” the two-time US Open semifinalist was heard telling Pinoargote.
the drama at the end of the tiafoe/safiullin match pic.twitter.com/HftfltXHew
— emily (@sportyandhot) October 8, 2024
Tiafoe apologizes after drawing major criticism
Because of the way the match ended, the official accounts weren’t able to post content from the match. But on several other fan accounts, the footage of the incident was posted and pretty much everyone had a chance to see what happened.
And the reactions towards Tiafoe were mostly negative as it didn’t take long before the 26-year-old started receiving major criticism, scrutiny and backlash. Also, some deemed the American’s behavior as “vile” and “aggressive.”
After probably reading about what was being said online about him, the three-time ATP champion admitted his mistake and apologized.
“I really apologize for the way I acted tonight. That is not who I am and not 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 yall,” Tiafoe wrote in a message posted on his Instagram Story.
Frances Tiafoe apology© Frances Tiafoe – Instagram
Not the first time Tiafoe drew backlash in recent months
Entering Wimbledon, the former world No. 10 had been just 12-13 on the year. And after finding himself down by two sets to Matteo Arnaldi in the first round at The Championships, it appeared that another early exit was on the cards.
But then, he managed to come back and win 6-7 (5) 2-6 6-1 6-3 6-3. Later, he lamented that he had been “losing to clowns” in some of the matches earlier in the year.
“It’s brutal. Highs and lows. Think about where I’m at. Literally this week last year I was 10 in the world and now I’m barely seeded here (at Wimbledon). Losing to clowns, I hate to say it but I’m just gonna be honest. I took the game for granted and got a little too comfortable. You stop having fun with it and you find yourself in a weird position. Then you kind of forget what you were doing to win? You start doubting yourself and all these kinds of things,” Tiafoe said.
“But it’s the game. It’s like anything, nothing is peaches and cream all the time. It’s about how fast you can kind of get out of that. And there is always light at the end of the tunnel, whether you either try and find it with small wins or continue to feel sorry for yourself and continue to play victim, that’s where it just gets darker and darker and darker.”
Fans deemed the 26-year-old’s comments as disrespectful to some of his colleagues and that led to backlash. However, when asked about it, the American insisted that nobody took it as an insult and that fellow players joked about it and that everyone knew that he didn’t mean to mock anyone or anything like that.
“Yeah, I think it got taken the wrong way. At the same time, everyone on tour was laughing with me because it was me. I think it was all good fun in the end. I think people are going to hold their hat on that for a while,” Tiafoe said at the time.