Wimbledon chair-umpire Fergus Murphy will be hoping for a less turbulent time at the big event than he endured in the ITF Futures at Riverview yesterday.
Murphy was forced to default an irascible Italian, Igor Gaudi after a spate of chair-kicking, court violations, and varied obscenities. The Italian who surprised last week's winner, Michael Hill of Australia, was on the brink of a straight-sets defeat to Ireland's Owen Casey when be earned the ultimate sanction after an hour and 27 minutes.
A well-behaved Casey had won the first set and had reached vantage point for a break back at 4-3 when Murphy was obliged to act. Referee Steve Mehigan said afterwards, "the player was defaulted following three different court violations: racquet abuse, visual obsenity and audible obsenity. It was quite unusual in that there was no confrontation. The umpire followed the code of conduct."
Casey, now in the quarter-finals for the second week, said "we both had opportunities to give vent to our feelings. He expressed himself, I didn't. It could happen to me next week. Tennis is like that."
Things were much quieter on an adjacent court as Ireland number one Scott Barron bowed out to number four seed Yahiya Doumbia (Senegal) 6-4, 6-4. Doumbia was once ranked 74 in the world and played against Ireland in Davis Cup in Limerick a few years ago.
