ANDY MURRAY had an EXPLOSIVE argument with an umpire during his first match at the Rome Masters in Italy.
The Scotsman raged at umpire Mohamed Lahyani after a tricky line-call on the baseline of the court.
Andy Murray had a heated confrontation with umpire Mohamed Lahyani during the game
Lahyani came down from his chair to inspect the court
Murray had come into the Italian Open fresh from winning the Aix-en-Provence, his first ATP Tour title in four years.
He drew a tough first round, coming up against former top-ten player Fognini.
The Italian dominated the first set, urged on by a home crowd, but Murray fought back valiantly to make the score 5-3.
With the match hotting up, Fognini went to serve and produced a huge lob that was called in by the line judge.
But Murray immediately challenged the call, bringing Lahyani down from his chair to inspect the court.
The two were seen pointing at the baseline, with Lahyani even crouching down to examine where the ball had made a mark in the clay.
However, the umpire agreed with the original call, prompting a furious outburst from Murray.
He began shouting: “You can see the ball mark mate.
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“Mohamed, look. How can you see that ball from there being in? How is it possible?”
He even accused the umpire of trying to sabotage the mark, saying: “You’re trying to make a mark now. You can see the clay is still there. You can see the ball mark.”
Lahyani ran back to his chair having had enough of the exchange, but Murray followed him.
He screamed at the umpire: “You know you’ve got that wrong.”
Murray and Lahyani debated whether Fognini’s serve had been called in correctly
Murray even followed Lahyani back to his umpire’s chair as the two continued to argue
And Murray was right- Hawkeye then showed Fognini’s shot had landed just outside the baseline.
But, the Italian Open doesn’t use Hawkeye for line calls, instead relying on the umpire, so the decision gave Fognini a point to hold serve.
The decision re-sparked debate over the use of Electronic Line Calling systems like Hawkeye, with the technology only being rolled out across all ATP tournaments in 2025.
Murray eventually lost in three sets to the Italian, and will be disappointed with the outcome of the match after starting the year so positively.
Hawkeye later proved Murray right but isn’t used for line calls in the Italian Open
Murray left the match dejected after losing in three sets to Fognini
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