This year's tennis championships at Wimbledon have certainly delivered. We had the massive shock of Novak Djokovic being dumped out early, and we've also been treated to the mother of all on-court meltdowns.
The verdant arenas of SW19 delivered once again today, with one of the most bizarre stories in the history of the Championship. Court No. 7 played host to a doubles match, pitting Britain’s Jonny Marray and Canada’s Adil Shamasin against Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers of Spain.
It was a marathon match lasting almost four hours, with Cuevas and Granollers denied a bathroom break by the umpire, Aurelie Tourte. The umpire then alleged that Cuevas threatened to piss in an empty ball can under cover of a towel, and subsequently imposed a code violation upon Cuevas and Granollers for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Cuevas and Granollers then earned themselves a second code violation when Cuevas walloped the ball out of court in frustration. this led to the triggering of a points penalty, leaving Marray and Shamasin at triple match-point, and on the cusp of victory.
In angry response, Cuevas and Granollers staged a 15 minute sit-in protest on the court, before eventually returning under threat of forfeiture. They played out the final points, eventually losing 6-3 4-6 6-4 3-6 14-12.
Afterwards, Cuevas thrust the ball can at the umpire to prove it was empty.
The victorious Shamasin wasn't entirely sure of what happened, but agreed the umpire managed to lose control of the contest:
I don't know exactly what happened but it was something to do with a can. It was during a changeover and it had something to do with bathroom breaks.
I don't think the chair umpire really had the match controlled. She made a few mistakes early on both ends. We were all on her and she was definitely flustered. I don't think she handled it correctly.
