Fognini disqualified in Barcelona for abusing official
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Fiery Italian Fabio Fognini was defaulted from the Barcelona ATP tournament on Wednesday for verbally abusing a line judge.
The 33-year-old was trailing world number 147 Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-0, 4-4 when he clashed with the official and was defaulted by the umpire for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Fognini is one of only a small number of players to have been defaulted from a match.
The most famous incident involved world number one Novak Djokovic who was disqualified from the 2020 US Open for hitting a line judge with a ball.
Nick Kyrgios was also defaulted at the Rome tournament in 2019 after hurling a chair on to the court.
Fognini, the world number 27, is no stranger to being disqualified.
At the 2017 US Open, he was booted out of the tournament and fined $24,000 for a series of insults aimed at a female chair umpire.