American tennis player Tristan Boyer smashed his tennis racket in visible rage after a controversial call during a defeat to Australian Alex Bolt.
Boyer, who sits 113th in the ATP rankings, was beaten 6-3 7-6 (7-4) by his Australian opponent in their San Diego Open first round clash.
During the second set tie-break, Boyer was deemed to have taken too long to serve and umpire Nick Flentie issued a time violation warning.
However, the Californian native disagreed and protested against the decision after losing the point and seeing Bolt regain the serve.
“It’s not like I want to do it,” Flentie insisted, before later adding: “I’m not doing my job if I don’t.”
Moments later, Boyer hit the match point into the net to confirm his defeat and he expressed his fury by shouting: “F***!”
The 23-year-old then aggressively smashed his racket onto the court six times before running to the net to shake hands with Bolt.
Boyer continued to express his frustration by taking aim at Flentie: “Unbelievable, it’s ridiculous!
“You guys can’t do one thing right, God is p****s me off! God it’s frustrating! All over the place, horrendous calls, horrendous calls!”
“It’s not though, we’re seeing it different,” Flentie tried to explain but Boyer continued: “What are you doing giving me a code violation.
“There are three people here watching me, three people. It’s the first round of a freaking [ATP Challenger] 100, it’s ridiculous!”
“We’re not on TV, there’s no one watching, no one’s watching the stream… You’re ridiculous!” he added.
“We’re not gonna just bend the rules,” Flentie explained to him as the tensions began to simmer down.
However, when collecting his racket, Boyer delivered one final smash before walking off the tennis court.
Bolt remained quiet throughout his opponent’s fiery reaction and is now through to the second round of the tournament.
He will face Govind Nanda, with the San Diego Open offering a prize of $22,730 for the winner.