Tiafoe swore at the judge after losing to Safiullin in the 1/8 finals of the Masters in Shanghai – Teller Report Teller Report

Roman Safiullin rarely pleases fans this year. He can only count the January tournament in Brisbane as an asset, where he reached the semi-finals. And even that one was more of a warm-up game for most of the opponents before the Australian Open. On other courts, the native of Podolsk finished the fight mainly in the first and second rounds. All the more unexpected was his success at the Masters in Shanghai, where he made it to the 1/8 finals, eliminating two seeded tennis players from his path.

First, the Russian met Beibit Zhukaev, who had overcome the crucible of qualification, and calmly gained the upper hand, although in the opening game he allowed his opponent to bring the matter to a tie-break – 7:6, 6:4. Next, he faced a confrontation with another, much more sophisticated representative of Kazakhstan, Alexander Bublik, who was in the top 30 of the ATP rankings.

Judging solely by the score, Safiullin did not experience any problems, giving only six games to his opponent. However, the game itself lasted for three days. It started on Saturday, but was interrupted due to rain. The athletes spent the entire Sunday in agonizing anticipation and never entered the court.

Then the organizers made a very unexpected decision – they moved the match to a closed training ground. It did not meet all the requirements for holding competitions of this level. For example, the judges had to record the score on a wooden scoreboard using numbers printed on paper. But even in such conditions, Roman achieved his goal and demonstrated that he had gotten into excellent shape.

“We played three games on Saturday. And then, sometimes we go, sometimes we don’t. Then the organizers decided to cancel everything. Sunday turned out to be difficult since we came to play for the first time. That is, you arrive at 9:00 – 9:30 and sit and wait all day, until 18:00. At some point they said that we would start at 16:00. You warm up again, then it starts to rain again,” the tennis player complained in an interview with the Youtube channel “Bolshe”.

In the third round, Roman faced an even more difficult test in the person of the 17th racket on the planet, Francis Tiafoe. He recently created a sensation at the US Open, breaking into the top four. And before that, he reached the Masters final in Cincinnati, where he lost only to Jannik Sinner.

It is not surprising that the American was considered the favorite. And at first you could feel it. Even though the opponents took their serves, not allowing each other to catch on, but Tiafoe did it more confidently. Safiullin, although he attacked, nevertheless made mistakes many times more often (20 unforced errors versus 5).

Sooner or later, the number of defects was bound to take its toll. Unfortunately, this happened in the 11th game with an equal score. Francis scored the first break and immediately took the game, not allowing the Russian to come to his senses. And then he opened the second with another one, making it clear that he was not going to stay on the court.

But Roman endured it, continued to apply pressure, and responded in kind in the fourth game. Moreover, with the score 3:2 in his favor, he was close to building on his success, but did not realize the triple break point.

But at the end of the set, luck smiled on him. First, he broke his own serve, and then left no chance for Tiafoe to return, thereby taking mirror revenge – 7:5.

The decisive set was no less nervous. In the third game, the Russian left with 15:40, and in the next game he made a break, despite the fact that he was one step away from defeat four times. But the American, finding himself in a difficult situation, managed to rebel. He took Roman’s serve to order and turned 2:5 into 5:5.

As a result, the fate of the meeting was decided in a tiebreaker. Safiullin took the lead and secured a slight advantage for himself. However, the opponent restored the status quo – 5:5.

At this moment, the key episode of the confrontation occurred. Tiafoe took too long on his first serve and was given a third warning in the final set by the umpire for time-delaying his serve. This time the arbitrator’s verdict angered him.

He tried to explain that he was throwing the ball and was about to hit it. As a result, the American got nervous and gave away an important point. Safiullin managed to shorten and responded with a candle. The opponent had difficulty getting the ball, and Roman ended the rally with a shot into the empty part of the court.

And then he put an end to it with the 17th ace of the meeting. He took his success quite calmly and went to greet his counterpart. But he threw a real hysteria, starting to obscenely insult the judge. Roman, seeing such a reaction, only spread his arms to the sides in confusion.

For such behavior, he risks being subject to a monetary fine, and possibly even losing rating points.

However, this hardly spoiled the mood of the native of Podolsk, who won and for the first time in his career made it to the 1/8 finals of the Masters series tournament. He also rose to 57th place in the ATP live rankings.

“In the third set, all functions will be disabled. Moral and volitional qualities remain. Who will overpower whom? Yes, somewhere Tiafoe was unlucky that he did not follow the serve time. But overall it was a very good match. I’m glad that in the second game I came back after a break and took over. In the third, he led, but, unfortunately, it was not possible to put the pressure on the opponent. In the opening set there were problems with reception, so I often changed positions. But in the second I already found it more or less comfortable, so that I could accept and cause inconvenience to the American,” the domestic tennis player shared his emotions.

But it will take a miracle to take the next step as the Russian takes on Novak Djokovic. This will be their third face-to-face meeting. In the previous two, the Serb gained the upper hand without making any extra effort. So, this year in Monte Carlo I gave only three games to Safiullin.