'F*ck You, You F*cked Me In The Match': Frances Tiafoe Lambasts Umpire After Loss at Shanghai Masters - WATCH

Tensions flared in Shanghai tonight as American Frances Tiafoe launched a fiery verbal attack on the chair umpire after his loss to Roman Safiullin at the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday.

World 61st-ranked Roman Safiullin upset the 13th-seeded American Frances Tiafoe in a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5) thriller, in the Round of 32.

After calmly shaking hands with his opponent Safiullin, Tiafoe lost his temper completely, erupting into a fiery crude rant at the chair umpire, repeatedly swearing at him as he refused to shake his hand.

“F*ck you, f*ck you, man. Seriously man, f*ck you, you f*cking idiot. You f*cked me in the match, do your f*cking job. Three f*cking hours, I’m fighting and running for my life,” Tiafoe exclaimed as he stormed to his bench in disbelief and anger.

What prompted the outburst?

After going down a break in the decider, Tiafoe clawed his way back into the match to keep his chances alive and broke when Safiullin served for it.

Ultimately, the game headed into a tiebreak of the decider set, where Tiafoe was slapped with a time violation at 5-5, leading to a loss of first serve for the American, which ultimately led to his demise in the match.

“Time violation, loss of serve. Mr Tiafoe,” umpire Jimmy Pinoargote announced. Tiafoe immediately stormed up to the chair.

“No. No, no, no. I tossed the ball up. I tossed the ball up. I tossed the ball. I was back behind and I tossed the ball. I tossed the ball and I was ready to serve,” he protested.

A controversial aspect of the call from the umpire has to do with the timing of it, not just with respect to the match but Tiafoe’s serve as well.

The American received that warning when the ball was already in the air, in the middle of the serve. But, it also has to be established that the referee had already warned him for time violations multiple times earlier at crucial moments when such warnings can be decisive.