Usually not one for tennis aggro,
Hubert Hurkacz entered his villain era tonight during his defeat to
Grigor Dimitrov at the 2024
French Open in which he bizarrely asked the Bulgarian mid match if he wanted to change the umpire.
Hurkacz spent all match getting more and more irate in particular shouting for the supervisor when a line call was seemingly not called in his direction. He smashed his racquet off the ground in frustration after missing a point only to catch it and in a moment that sent social media into gasps, he attempted to get a new chair umpire.
During the change of ends, he did a substitution gesture and ended up going over to Dimitrov right in front of the umpire trying to get it changed. “G? You wanna make a change? Or you wanna continue with the lady here?," said Hurkacz to Dimitrov.
“Wanna continue with what?” said Dimitrov in response. “I mean if you wanna continue with the lady here or you’re fine or you wanna change. That’s what I’m saying, up to you," said Hurkacz to which Dimitrov left it up to his opponent. "Honestly it’s whatever you wanna do." Only in tennis eh. A side never seen before of the Pole. It didn't do him any good though as Dimitrov sealed a 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 win. He moves into the Quarter-Finals for the first time at
Roland Garros and 15 years on, he completes his set of Quarter-Finals. Truly superb longevity whilst Hurkacz will ponder what could've been.
Hurkacz had beaten Denis Shapovalov, Brandon Nakashima, Shintaro Mochizuki to get to this point in the tournament before losing out to Dimitrov. But also had the issue that he played almost everyday over the past week due to rain and scheduling woes. So perhaps the frustration was coming out.
