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Tennis Twitter Goes Berserk as Roger Federer Engages in Heated Argument with Umpire and Marin Cilic at French Open 2021

Published 06/03/2021, 12:34 PM EDT

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via Reuters

Roger Federer was furious after he received a time violation warning during the second set of his Round-2 clash against former Grand Slam champion Marin Cilic at Roland-Garros on Thursday.

Roger Federer received a time violation on return game

Federer was seen remonstrating with the chair umpire and the latter’s microphone even picked up the eight-time Wimbledon champion as saying, ‘Me, Me?’ (the argument went down in French).

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The 39-year-old got off to a scintillating start in the opening set, taking an early break and then doubling it, to win it 6-2.

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However, the veteran Croat staged a valiant fightback, breaking the champion back and turning the tables to him to take the second set by an identical margin by which he lost the first.

While details on the incident were sketchy at best, it is understood that Federer received the time violation warning for being too slow in reaching for his towel between points and games and also while walking across the court.

Federer was censured after Marin Cilic complained about his slowness on court

A tweet suggested that it was Cilic who alerted the chair umpire to Federer’s apparent slowness and wanted him to be officially warned.

A sports journalist tweeted further details of the incident saying that the veteran Croat star went complaining to the umpire about Federer when he was himself pulled up for ball-bouncing.

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Though the Swiss received an official warning on his return to the court, it wasn’t until later that the chair umpire told the champion that he acted on the Croat’s complaint.

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It appears that Federer still hasn’t got a hang of playing in the new normal where players have to set their towels back after using them and have to deliver serves before the shot clock runs down.

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Even at ATP Doha, his comeback event after close to a 14-month absence from the circuit to recover from a second knee surgery that he underwent last, the champion was about to throw the towel to the ball boy before realizing his mistake.

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Written by:

Priyabrata Chowdhury

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Priyabrata Chowdhury is a tennis author for EssentiallySports. He has been a print journalist for a decade, producing news pages for leading national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The New Indian Express. His passion for sports eventually drove him to tennis writing.
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