Andy Murray and Fabio Fognini Shanghai row ‘continued in locker room’

ATP Tour
Andy Murray

What happens on the court usually stays on the court, but that wasn’t the case for Andy Murray and Fabio Fognini as their heated Shanghai Masters exchanged spilled over into the locker room, according to a report.

The drama started when the Italian apparently shouted midway through a point during their second-round clash on Tuesday, much to Murray’s annoyance, and the former world No 1 hit back by yelling “shut up”.

During the changeover Murray had another go at Fognini telling him “You say the same to everyone. Mate, you do the same in every match. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing.”

The Times says the altercation continued in the change room.

“Sources have told The Times that Murray, the three-times grand-slam champion from Great Britain, and Fognini, the world No 12 from Italy, were involved in another heated verbal exchange behind the scenes at the Qizhong Forest Tennis Centre,” the report read.

“A small number of players, coaches and officials watched awkwardly as they aired their grievances with each other in a communal area.”

Neither player was prepared to back down and the yelling match continued for a few minutes.

They tried to play the incident down during their post-match press conference with Murray saying: “Someone made a noise, I didn’t know who made the noise, I looked in the direction of where the noise came from.

“He then told me, ‘Stop looking at me, what are you looking at me for?’

“I was like, ‘I was just about to hit a shot and someone made a noise’. He then told me to stop looking at him.

“He told me to stop complaining, to have a sense of humour. I wanted to know where the sound came from and it came from him, which you’re not allowed to do.

“It’s against the rules, it’s hindrance, you shouldn’t do it. But he said I should have a sense of humour about that but in that moment neither of us were in a joking, laughing kind of mood.

“He [umpire Fergus Murphy] wasn’t saying anything to him. I was obviously frustrated with that. He wanted to engage with me, I probably shouldn’t have done but I’m not having him talk to me like that on the court.”

The Italian admitted there was a lot of complaining.

“I don’t shut up. We know each other really well. Inside the court we are almost the same because most of the time I am complaining and he is complaining. But that is part of our job.”

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