MELBOURNE, Australia – After winning a grueling, tightly contested match that lasted nearly four hours, Tomas Berdych didn’t expect to be met by a stadium full of booing and hisses.
Berdych, the seventh seed from Czech Republic, was jeered by the crowd for refusing to shake hands with his opponent, No. 10 seed Nicolas Almagro, because he believed the Spaniard had deliberately struck him with a ball during a point at the end of the fourth set.
Berdych was initially cheered by the spectators at Hisense Arena following his 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) win in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Sunday, but the crowd turned on him in an instant when he refused to shake Almagro’s hand at the net.
The booing drowned out his post-match, on-court interview and continued until he walked off.
“I think when you have a point and someone wants to hit you straight to your face, I don’t see this as a nice moment,” Berdych said during the interview, struggling to be heard over the noise from the crowd.
Berdych was angered by what happened in the 11th game of the fourth set, with the score level at 5-all. The Czech player approached the
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
