This year's Australian Open is certainly unique.
Players were forced to quarantine for two weeks after arriving in the country, with many of them unable to leave their hotel rooms even to train. Novak Djokovic was unhappy with the situation, but as a whole those involved understood that it was needed in order for the event to go ahead.
As a payoff, the matches have now been able to take part in front of crowds in Melbourne. Australia is one of the few countries where spectators are currently permitted at sporting events.
Many of the headlines in the tournament up to this point have been generated away from the court, but there was some controversy after a second round match today.
Italian pair Fabio Fognini and Salvatore Caruso were involved in a five-set thriller at Melbourne Park, with the former coming out in top in a dramatic final set tie breaker.
Fognini rubbed up his opponent the wrong way on a number of occasions during the match, even openly labelling some of Caruso's shots as 'fucking lucky'.
Things would eventually boil over at the end of the match, with the pair having to be physically separated after getting into a war of words.
Things got heated between Fognini and Caruso follow that epic tie-break decider 🇮🇹🔥#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/8OIT1GgSKH
— Eurosport (@eurosport) February 11, 2021
For those of you not well-versed in Italian, this is what was apparently said.
Full transcript of the Fognini Caruso exchange after the match was over pic.twitter.com/zSl62j5VwQ
— enrico maria riva (@enricomariariva) February 11, 2021
16th seed Fognini will now take on Alex de Minaur in the third round.
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