Novak Djokovic was left frustrated with Arthur Rinderknech during their doubles match at Indian Wells.
Djokovic remains in the singles draw at Indian Wells, and he will play defending champion Jack Draper in his fourth round match.
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The 24-time Grand Slam champion is also making a rare doubles appearance in California, as Djokovic partnered Stefanos Tsitsipas for the first time.
Djokovic and Tsitsipas won their first round match, but they came unstuck against the cousin pairing of Rinderknech and Valentin Vacherot, in a match that contained controversy.
Novak Djokovic has frosty handshake with Arthur Rinderknech after hindrance incident
Vacherot and Rinderknech made history at the Shanghai Masters last year, where they both reached the final.
The cousins have teamed up at Indian Wells, and they are now into the quarterfinals after beating Djokovic and Tsitsipas 7-6(4), 7-5.
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In the early stages of the first set, Tsitsipas hit a bounce smash long of the baseline, with Rinderknech and Vacherot being awarded the point.
However, Djokovic contested this and requested a video umpire from the chair umpire, claiming that Rinderknech had hindered Tsitsipas by moving his arm around.
After the umpire reviewed the footage of this point, he agreed with Djokovic and awarded the Serbian and Tsitsipas the point as a result of the hindrance call on Tsitsipas.
There did not appear to be any love lost between Djokovic and his opponents, with an uncharacteristically business-like handshake at the net after losing the match.
Arthur Rinderknech criticised for his celebration after beating Novak Djokovic in doubles
Following the somewhat frosty handshake at the net, Rinderknech then proceeded to do a unique celebration.
Rinderknech appeared to be waving his hands around to do an exaggerated clap towards the crowd.
It is unclear as to whether this was pointed at Djokovic’s hindrance, but Rinderknech has been criticised as a result of it.
One wrote, “Classless.”
Another added, “What a clown.”
One other social media user criticised both Rinderknech and Vacherot, “I’m not liking the vibes of these PHONEY cousins… Glad Novak called Arthur out.”
Rinderknech does not appear to be fazed by the backlash one bit, as he simply commented three laughing face emojis, followed by three love heart eye emojis and a tick emoji in response to the video of his celebration on X (formerly known as Twitter).
After beating Djokovic and Tsitsipas, Rinderknech and Vacherot will now move on to their quarterfinal match against Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev.
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