Holger Rune has once again found himself at the centre of controversy following a fresh incident on Monday.
The fiery 20-year-old was bundled out of the Madrid Open on Monday in the round of 32 at the hands of Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
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Rune, the sixth seed, was sent packing in a three-set encounter that lasted over three hours as the 29th seed prevailed 7-6, 5-7, 7-6.
Controversy however exploded in the opening set with the young Dane called out for appearing to brush away a close line call.
A point in the second set that was called good was brought into question by Fokina who was convinced it was out with chair umpire Carlos Bernardes agreeing with the Spanish player.
The electronic line however deemed the serve had landed in which frustrated Fokina and saw him call for the match supervisor.
As he argued his point Rune was seen walking over to inspect the mark with one foot going extremely close to where it had landed.
Fans in attendance blew up believing he had erased the mark with his foot which prompted them to turn against the young star for the remainder of the match.
Shortly after the incident unfolded Bernardes was captured giving the current world number seven a stern talking too.
“I told you once in Monte Carlo, but that was fine. There are crowds that you cannot control if you do things like that … they will be worse if you keep doing it. If you just play tennis, they don’t do anything else,” said Bernardes to Rune.
“I’m just trying to help you to go through this as I have experience here that you can’t play if they start to do it. For them what you did with erasing the mark, there was no reason for that.”
The crowd didn’t hold back with their anger towards him as they let go a chorus of boos throughout the match, including in between his serves.
Fokina said the energy of the crowd behind him helped fuel him in the marathon encounter and go him over the line.
“I felt that energy & I was like ‘I don’t want to go home..’ it doesn’t matter if I’m cramping, doesn’t matter if I have tension, but I want to win this match. It’s very late, it’s incredible that people stayed here and supported me,” he said.
The win sets up a round of round 16 against the 17th seeded Borna Coric who took care of business against 12th seed Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets, 7-6 6-3.
