Tennis star squares up to fan in furious incident as umpire forced to intervene | Tennis | Sport

A match on the ATP Challenger Tour descended into chaos when a player squared up to a fan, with the umpire forced to intervene. Tensions boiled over towards the end of the first set, with the player in question needing to be escorted away from the crowd.

The player in question was Nerman Fatic, who was competing against Tseng Chun-hsin at the Challenger event in Rome. The first set had been locked at 3-3 when Chun-hsin clipped the net with the ball while attempting a drop shot.

The fortunate deflection took the sting out of the shot, which bounced twice before Fatic could even begin to prepare a return. A loud roar followed from some members of the sparse crowd at the side of the court, while Fatic simultaneously launched the ball into the air with his racket.

It didn’t appear that the fans were jeering Chun-hsin’s lucky bounce, however, Fatic still took exception to it regardless. The Bosnian turned to the spectators and began to slowly walk in their direction.

The umpire, well aware of what was starting to happen, shouted “calma” down the microphone before springing out of his chair. It looked as if Fatic was particularly frustrated with one specific member of the crowd, and the 31-year-old exchanged some angry words with the spectator.

The situation lasted about 30 seconds, with Fatic eventually being walked back to his mark. But it looked as if it was the kick up the backside he needed, given Fatic went on to not only win the match, but also the set.

The Sarajevo-born star has competed in the qualifying rounds for five Grand Slam tournaments, but has never made it beyond the second round.

The closest he came to reaching the main draw was at the 2024 Australian Open qualifiers, which came around the same time he achieved a career-high ranking of 191. He’s currently ranked 239th in the world, and is the second-highest-ranked Bosnian in tennis.