{"id":1342,"date":"2023-01-19T10:19:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:03:01","slug":"ukraine-supporters-taunt-russian-tennis-star-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/19\/ukraine-supporters-taunt-russian-tennis-star-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine supporters taunt Russian tennis star (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrey Rublev\u2019s Australian Open match was interrupted by protesters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrey Rublev, one of Russia\u2019s hopefuls at the ongoing Australian Open, complained to the chair umpire about taunts from spectators bearing a Ukrainian flag during his second-round win against Finland\u2019s Emil Ruusuvuori on Thursday.<\/p>\n

At the start of the second set, Rublev was targeted by a section of the crowd who draped the Ukrainian flag over advertisement hoardings at the Kia Arena \u2013 which came days after Australian Open officials banned the display of the Russian flag throughout the course of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Rublev, who was suspended from playing at Wimbledon last year due to his nationality, informed the official that he did not object to the presence of the flag itself but rather the torrent of insults he claimed were being directed at him.<\/p>\n

\n

pic.twitter.com\/LGx7wBlWML<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ARUpdates (media) (@RublevMedia) January 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt was not about the flag<\/em>,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cI said straightaway to the referee, it\u2019s not about the flag, they can put any flag they want, I understand completely the situation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more that they started to tell me bad words and bad things. I said to the referee: \u2018It\u2019s not about the flag, but please can you tell them at least to not say bad words when I\u2019m on the changeover<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t Rublev\u2019s only quarrel with the umpire during the match as he became involved in a tense confrontation with the official in the third set after he was accused of uttering obscenities in his native tongue.<\/p>\n

\n

Game is getting a bit spicy. Rublev dropped a swear word and the umpire gave him a code violation. Rublev was not impressed. pic.twitter.com\/d8kZksyMIJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark O’Sullivan (@osullysport) January 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rublev, who was penalized for the outburst, reacted furiously and said the umpire couldn\u2019t possibly have understood what he had said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you from Russia? Do you speak Russian?<\/em>\u201d Rublev asked, denying that he had used coarse language.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take this back. There are so many similar words<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The umpire did not back down, prompting another riposte from the Russian.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now you are telling me this, I\u2019m understanding \u2018f**k you.\u2019 It\u2019s exactly the same<\/em>,\u201d Rublev responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why you don\u2019t give me warning now when I say f**k you? That\u2019s what I hear<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rublev ultimately won the match in four sets (6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3) to qualify for the third round of the first Grand Slam event of the new year.<\/p>\n

He will next play the UK\u2019s Dan Evans on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrey Rublev\u2019s Australian Open match was interrupted by protesters Andrey Rublev, one of Russia\u2019s hopefuls at the ongoing Australian Open, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}