Holger Rune receives lecture from chair umpire after controversial incident during Alejandro Davidovich Fokina clash

Holger Rune was given a lengthy talking-to by chair umpire Carlos Bernardes over a controversial incident during his Madrid Open clash against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Davidovich Fokina edged Rune in a three-hour, five-minute-long late-night thriller at the Manolo Santana Stadium in Madrid. The Spaniard notched his fourth win over a Top-10 opponent by battling past Rune 7-6(1), 5-7, 7-6(5).

In a tight first set, Rune hit a second serve which was called in. However, Davidovich Fokina argued against the automatic line call.

As the Spaniard raised the issue with umpire Bernardes, Rune walked over to the other side of the court and erased the contentious mark. That drew the ire of the crowd as they rallied behind home favorite Davidovich Fokina.

Rune soon complained about the hostility of the crowd to the umpire. However, Bernardes advised the 20-year-old to focus on playing tennis as he believed the crowd was provoked by his actions.

"I'm going to tell you one thing and that's it for the whole match. There are crowds that you cannot control so if you do a thing like that," Bernardes said.

"If you just play tennis, they don't do anything else," he added. "I am just trying to help you to get through this. I have experience here, that you can not play if they start to do. For them, what you did was erase the mark. There was no reason for that."

The Dane, however, continued to protest that he had done nothing wrong during the match.

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"Thanks to Holger Rune's gesture people have come closer to me" - Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on controversial call incident

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the 2023 Madrid Open

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina addressed the controversial incident involving Holger Rune in his post-match press conference. He stated that he was informed by chair umpire Carlos Bernardes that he could not go down and check the mark himself as he was bound by the tournament's protocols.

Davidovich Fokina added that the crowd's annoyance at Rune's perceived actions seemed to have generated even more support in his favor.

"People have been annoyed and thanks to Rune's gesture people have come more to me and I have noticed that. What I was saying to Bernardes is that if we could all see that the ball was bad, why couldn't he go down to check it and correct it even though the machine said it was good," the Spaniard said.

Davidovich Fokina will take on Borna Coric in the fourth round of the Madrid Open on Tuesday, May 2.