Andrey Rublev has been disqualified from the Dubai Tennis Championships for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Russian second seed screamed in the face of a line judge following a disputed call in the third set of his semi-final with Alexander Bublik.
A Russian-speaking official told ATP supervisor Roland Herfel that Rublev had sworn at the line judge in Russian.
Rublev denied he was speaking Russian, but was defaulted for unsportsmanlike conduct by umpire Miriam Bley.
The world number five, who was trailing 6-5 in the final set, will lose all of his prize money and ranking points for the week.
Fellow Russian Daria Kasatkina, world number 12 in the women’s rankings, called the decision a “joke”.
“So you can just default a player, take his points and money away, without even checking a video replay? What a joke, another confirmation we need a VAR in tennis and electronic line calling on all tournaments,” Kasatkina posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Russian-born Kazakh Bublik, who received a code violation for smashing his racquet earlier in the match, was awarded the win at 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-5.
“I highly doubt Andrey said something crazy, he’s not this kind of guy. But I guess that’s the rules. That’s what they did, they just follow the procedure,” Bublik said.
“There’s not much to say. With all due respect, it was a great match and both of us deserved to win. The crowd was there and we could have played one of the greatest matches against each other. It’s a pity it ended like this.
“I wish Andrey to get back on track as soon as possible.”
Bublik will face top seed Daniil Medvedev or Frenchman Ugo Humbert in Saturday’s final.