Former world tennis no.1 Karolina Pliskova has channelled her inner John McEnroe at the Italian Open, launching a furious tirade at an erroneous umpire.
The Czech player was playing out a tense match with Maria Sakkari in the second round of competition that went down to a final game decider at 5-5.
She moved forward to the net as Sakkari sent a ball lobbing up high in the air towards here, offering up the chance of an overhead smash. Smash it she did, landing a peach of a shot right on the line and far out of the reach of her opponent.
Incredibly, the ball was called out and upon protestations from Pliskova, the linesman and the umpire couldn’t find her ball's mark in the clay surface - so, the call stood.
The game was delicately poised at 30-30 but that decision ultimately cost Pliskova the game as she seems to lose her composure. She lost the final two games and fell to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat - and was less than happy about it.
She proceeded to approach Marta Mrozinska with a fake handshake before reneging and smashing up her chair with her racket, causing visible damage.
Pliskova’s twin sister, Kristyna, also a professional tennis player, wasn’t too pleased with the drama either and took to twitter to say the following:
“The worst i have ever seen @wta and i hope this lady Marta Mrozinska will never ever judge any match of me or Karolina again #blacklistforever”.
Her coach Thomas Krupa got in on the action, making a rather rude gesture to the TV cameras.
Watch the incredible scene play out below.
