Frances Tiafoe lost in tense fashion to Russian’s Roman Safiullin as he launched expletives at the umpire at the Shanghai Masters.
Rage spilled over as Frances Tiafoe hurled abuse at the umpire after losing a third-set deicing tie-break 7-5 against Russia’s Roman Safiullin.
The American clinched the first set in 42 minutes, decisively breaking at 5-5 to serve it out.
An early exchange of breaks in the second saw the pair increase the length of both points and games as the set bled on for over an hour with Safiullin this time breaking at 5-5 to eventually level things up.
Racing to a 5-2 lead in the deciding set, it looked like the curtain had come down prematurely ounce again for Tiafoe, who’s struggled since his superb US Open run.
Despite fighting back to a tie-break, the umpire stripped away his first serve at 5-5 (again – a lot happened at 5-5) after the American was judged to have committed a time violation. A row ensued before Safiullin won the next two points to steal the match and leave Tiafoe furious.
But did Tiafoe predict his own defeat?
Frances Tiafoe labels opponent ‘dark horse’ before being beaten by him
Tiafoe lost by a tiny margin in a match where he actually won three more points than his opponent.
After such an admirable fight-back, a tense row with the umpire and some smart play from Safiullin was the only thing that separated the two in the end.
Ahead of the tie, Tiafoe warned himself of the dangers Safiullin posed, telling the Tennis.com that he was anticipating a tremendously difficult match.
“I think he’s a super dark horse. He can beat a lot of guys. Obviously he’s had an up-and-down season, but he’s very, very capable.”
And capable he certainly was as he pipped the American to the line at the dying moments.
Who does Roman Safiullin play next?
Having notched up three top 10 wins in his career, Safiullin is certainly no slouch when it comes to facing the top stars.
Ben Shelton named Safiullin as his most feared opponent out of players ranked outside the top 20.
The Russian may well have his work cut out in the next round as he hopes to make it a fourth top 10 win and arguable the best of his career.
The 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic waits in the fourth-round after he cruised past youngster Flavio Cobolli in straight sets.
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