Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz explains why he badly lost his temper in the first set of his four-hour, five-set win over Somdev Devvarman in the second round of the Australian Open. The Pole was up 9-8 in the first set tie-breaker when Devvarman hit a forehand close to the line that was called in. The match was played on a side court, without Hawk-Eye replay technology.
“How many times? How many times?” Janowicz screamed at the chair umpire. “Oh my god!”
Janowicz then kneeled near the mark and yelled, “I beg you.” He then got up and spit on the ball mark. Eventually, he received a warning and lost the tiebreaker.
“Was shanked forehand from Devvarman. The ball was really slow,” Janowicz said. “It was clean out. I was already happy. I was already shouting, C’mon. But the referees didn’t say anything. This was the moment when I went nuts. … Well, sometimes happens like this. You can’t control your emotions all the time. This was really big point for me. We played this set for more than 1 hour, 10 minutes, so this was really important point for me.
“Actually, I went nuts. I calmed down little bit later on. Sometimes I have problem to control my emotions, but I’m trying to work on this.”