World No.1 Jannik Sinner has hailed his winning return to action as “an incredible moment” after his adoring fans in Rome cheered him to victory over Mariano Navone at the Italian Open following the end of his three-month doping ban.
But the home fans didn’t exactly delight Australian hope Alex de Minaur in another match at the Foro Italico on Saturday as he had to deal with a disruptive spectator near the end of his second-round win over home hope Luca Nardi.
In the day’s late match on Grand Stand Arena, the raucous home crowd began to get on de Minaur’s back before he finally managed to subdue a lively challenge from their favourite, world No.95 Nardi, 6-4 7-5.
But ‘Demon’ only got the job done after a fan in the front row, who’d evidently been bothering him throughout the contest, tried to disrupt his concentration at 4-4 in the second set, prompting de Minaur to point out the culprit to the chair umpire.
The Australian No.1 went over to remonstrate with the spectator and the umpire followed him over, warning the fan that security would deal with him if there were any more interruptions.
“So who was it? Who was it? Who went like that?” de Minaur said.
The umpire made clear he knew which fan was responsible.
“I’ve seen you that you’ve done it,” he said.
“You listen to me, if you do it one more time, you will leave the stadium. Is that clear?”