World No. 8 Holger Rune has been caught out hitting a microphone attached to the umpire’s chair in a bizarre act in his match against World No. 122 Arthur Cazaux.
It made a bad night even worse as Rune because the highest men’s seed so far to crash out of the tournament in a shock 7-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 loss to the unheralded Frenchman.
The 20-year-old Dutchman was a set and a break down after the first game of the second set and let his frustrations out on a microphone on the back of umpire Marijana Veljovic chair during a change of ends.
Rune was then called back to the umpire’s chair and given a code violation for the act.
While it was nothing too crazy, Rune was lucky it wasn’t worse as players have been disqualified for hitting the umpire’s chair in recent years, although in much different circumstances.
Alexander Zverev was kicked out of the 2022 Acapulco Open when he smashed his racket three times just below umpire Alessandro Germani’s feet before taking his seat and then rising again to shout at the official and smash the chair once more over a line call.
Swede Michael Ymer was disqualified from the Lyon Open in similar circumstances, smashing a hole in the chair.
Rune’s indiscretion was at the other end of the scale but any incident directed anywhere near the umpire has to be treated with the utmost seriousness.
“He had that coming, because he effectively hit the umpire’s chair,” Nick Lester said in commentary.
Aussie tennis champion John Fitzgerald said the incident showed that Cazaux had Rune rattled.
“This is always an indication to the other end that you’ve got your opponent under pressure,” Fitzgerald said.
“You can’t touch anything (on the umpire’s chair) but it wasn’t too vicious. Look, I’m sure there’d be no real penalties for that.
“Maybe there will but I would doubt it. You’ve just got to let him know, though.”
Coming into the tournament as a wildcard with just two tour-level victories, Cazaux blew the Australian Open wide open with the win.
“It was a crazy match, it was a big fight … sorry my voice is gone!” Cazaux said in an emotional post-match interview.
“Holger is a wonderful player and I’ve known him for a long time. I knew I had to be ready.
“Thank you everyone for a good atmosphere. The atmosphere was crazy! Merci beaucoup!”
Hilariously, Rune’s loss comes just days after he hit out at the Netflix Curse.
“I think it’s stupid, to be honest. No offence,” he said.
In last year’s Australian Open, the 10 subjects of the first half of the first season of Netflix documentary Break Point were eliminated or withdrew before the fourth round of the tournament.
Of the people who featured in season 2, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff, Daniil Medvedev, Tommy Paul, Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev are still alive in the 2024 Australian Open.
But Matteo Berrettini withdrew before the start of the event, Nick Kyrgios is also still out injured and Anett Kontaviet is retired, while Jess Pegula, Maria Sakkari, Frances Tiafoe, Ajla Tomljanovic and Rune were all knocked out in the second round.
