The tennis player was fined 11.5 million rubles for kicking the ball. What did he do?

Tennis has long been considered a game of gentlemen, in which it is worth showing respect to the opponent. But, alas, this golden rule is increasingly being violated. One of the worst hooligans is the Frenchman Hugo Gaston, to whom more and more questions from the ATP have recently arisen.

Another trick of the tennis player brought sports officials out of themselves. He got a huge fine!

Dear provocation

Gaston behaved defiantly in the second round of the Masters in Madrid, when he played with Croatian Borna Coric. In the first set, the Frenchman lost 3:5 and served. During the draw, Gaston at some point had to hit the ball by sending a candle. Coric was getting ready to end the draw with a smash. Then Gaston threw a spare ball out of his pocket and immediately began to appeal to the referee – they say, it is necessary to replay the serve.

The provocation failed and cost Hugo too much – in every sense. Firstly, Coric still won (6:3, 6:3) and sent the cunning Frenchman home. Secondly, Gaston’s behavior became the subject of proceedings in the ATP.

It turns out that the association had previously warned the tennis player that it was not worth interrupting the draws in this way. At the end of last year, Hugo already did a similar trick, but then everything was limited to a reprimand. Now the patience of ATP has expired.

Photo: © Guenther Iby / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

L`Equipe reports that Gaston was fined $144,000 (more than 11.5 million rubles). This, of course, is a very impressive amount without any clarifications. But there is one small nuance: for the entire season, the Frenchman earned … a little more than 121.7 thousand dollars, and this is before taxes! In fact, he must not only pay back all the prize money, but also find money elsewhere to pay off the debt.

Of course, Gaston immediately filed an appeal. The ATP took pity on the bully. The final amount of the fine was reduced to 72 thousand dollars (about 6.7 million rubles). But with the condition that Hugo will continue to behave correctly.

Thus, Gaston will not have to run around friends and borrow money. At the same time, any unsportsmanlike outrageousness and hooliganism should still be nullified, otherwise the wallet will be completely empty.

In plus for one tournament

The Frenchman is not in the top 100 of the ATP rankings and has no titles, even though he regularly shines in major tournaments. A year ago, he generally took 58th place – however, he could not resist.

Photo: © Julian Finney / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

By the way, Gaston can earn a fine at Roland Garros, where he got thanks to a wild card. The fee for the departure in the first round is 69 thousand euros, which practically covers the amount of the fine.

Antigame

But why did the Frenchman receive such a severe punishment? Well, he threw out and threw out this ball, what’s wrong with that?

It turns out that since the beginning of the year, the ATP has decided to take a course towards tougher penalties. Now the size of the fine depends on the status of the tournament: the steeper it is, the more severely antics are punished. If a player violates the rules again during the season, he will be required to pay twice the amount. These measures are taken to cool the hot heads of some tennis players. Previous punishments, according to sports officials, were too lenient.

“In egregious circumstances that harm the success of the tournament, the supervisor may refer the case to the ATP fines committee, which will decide how serious the violation is,” writes L`Equipe.

That is, antics out of the ordinary will be punished especially severely. What Gaston did is called “anti-game” in the language of functionaries. Or, to put it simply, unsportsmanlike behavior. Throwing the ball when the opponent breaks through at an important moment for himself is extremely ugly. And there is hope that financial sanctions will bring Hugo to his senses at least a little.