Reily Opelka refused to shake the chair umpire’s hand in a surprising set of events on the Dallas Open.
The American was up against Britain’s Cameron Norrie in a gruelling three-set win however the game resulted in controversy over a degree penalty.
Opelka defeated the British number two 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in a match that lasted two and half hours.
Little or no separated the pair as they each won 71 percent of their points on serve and equally shared the 202 points played.
Norrie claimed the primary set but lost a crunch second-set tiebreak before he was broken late within the deciding set to lose the match as Opelka proceeded into the quarter-finals.
At the tip of the match, the big-serving American opted to not shake the umpire’s hand as moments before he’d received a degree penalty when serving out the match.
Opelka received the punishment because he cursed out a heckler who had been disrupting the sport for some time.
At one point the 27-year-old tossed the ball to serve but needed to catch it due to one other interruption.
So the American turned to face the heckler, confronting them. “You doing it on f***ing purpose or what?” Opelka shouted before telling them to get out.
Chair umpire Greg Allensworth quickly handed Opelka a code violation for audible obscenity, leading to a degree penalty.
It gave Norrie a break point at a vital moment.
Opelka was not having it though as he stormed to the chair to plead his case, explaining to the official why he confronted the disruptive spectator.
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The stand-off didn’t end until the supervisor was called to the court, but Allensworth’s decision was not overturned.
Nevertheless, Opelka saved the break point and got out alive, as he booked his spot within the last 4.
In his post-game interview, the American took the chance to blast Allensworth and called for the ATP to penalise him, claiming players don’t like him.
“Greg Allensworth was the worst ref within the institute like we were talking about within the locker room of all of the players. It’s a coincidence like literally two days ago,” Opelka told reporters.
“Definitely, just like the worst umpire on tour. He almost modified the end result of that match simply because he doesn’t really know what he’s doing.”
Opelka went on so as to add that the umpire couldn’t explain why he was penalised, claiming that he got sensitive when asked why he didn’t throw out the spectator who heckled him.
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“(Allensworth) got emotional, like we were arguing. He got very intense and frantic, couldn’t give me a solution. He didn’t tell that guy to shut up,” Opelka added.
“If you should come here to be an a******, then I’m gonna be one back. It shouldn’t be one-sided traffic. If you should be disrespectful to me, I can’t just be a punching bag.
“And if the ref isn’t doing his job after which he penalizes me, it’s not a superb look. Almost modified the end result of the match.”
Opelka will turn his attention to Tommy Paul as he faces the defending champion within the quarter-finals, because the third seed got here through a final-set decider to defeat Ethan Quinn 6-4 5-7 6-4.
