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An unexpected incident took place during an ITF Tournament match between Svyatoslav Gulin of Russia and Alejo Sanchez Quilez of Spain on April 29, 2025. The Russian tennis player seemingly made some NSFW gestures towards the umpire during the third set. As a result of the gesture, Gulin was disqualified from the match even though he was holding the lead.
The 407-ranked ATP player was comfortably ahead of his opponent by the third set 7-5, 3-6, 4-0. However, in the spur of the moment, after winning a game, he appeared to celebrate winning a point by making obscene gestures towards the umpire, and also uttered some vulgar abuses. This behavior violated ITF's code of conduct, which in turn led to the disqualification of the Russian.
It remains unclear what prompted Gulin to make such a gesture on the court, especially given he was closing in on victory in the deciding set of the match. A clip of the same emerged on social media that showed the entire scene of his outburst on the court.
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Take a look at the video below (via The Tennis Letter):
Fellow ATP player Nick Kyrgios was also accused of making an NSFW gesture during the Queen's Club Championship in London in 2018.
ATP star Nick Kyrgios was also accused of NSFW gesture in 2018
Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who is known as one of the most controversial and divisive figures in the sport, was also held accountable for displaying NSFW behaviour during the 2018 Queen's Club Championship in London. During his match against Marin Cilic in the semifinals of the tournament, he made a vulgar gesture involving a water bottle that landed him in trouble.
He was fined a whopping £13,190 ($17,500) for his obscene reaction on camera, to which the BBC also issued an apology to viewers as the host broadcaster aired footage of the player saying expletives. However, this didn't stop him from losing his cool on the court again in the future. In the following year, he was disqualified from a match against Casper Ruud at the Italian Open for cussing out fans and displaying unsportsmanlike behaviour on the court.
Due to this incident, the Australian was fined a hefty amount of 20,000 euros alongside losing his prize money, and he even went on to lose 45 tournament points he had earned from the event.
