WASHINGTON, July 9 (RIA Novosti) – While the rest of the world was distracted by the dramatic events at Wimbledon, Russian tennis player Alexei Bogomolov caused a small scandal at the Nielsen Tennis Pro Championship in Winnetka, Illinois last week, the sports website tennisnow.com reported.
Florida-based Bogomolov was losing to his opponent, Bradley Klahn, in the semifinals of the tournament when a spectator called a ball out and Bogomolov stopped playing. When the chair umpire decreed that the ball was actually in, costing the Russian the game point, Bogomolov questioned the call, shook the umpire’s hand, removed his shirt and cursed him as he left the stadium, a video of the incident showed (see below).
According to the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour website, Bogomolov has been having a tough time recently. The son of a Soviet tennis coach and the grandson of a Soviet Olympic handball gold medalist, he is currently ranked 83rd in the world after reaching a career high of 33, and has lost each of the three tournaments he has played in this year.
