8 Jul, 2016 @ 11:25
1 min read

Spanish tennis player Marcel Granollers stages a peculiar protest

wimbledon drama  e

wimbledon drama 5SPAIN’S Marcel Granollers staged a sit-down protest during an ill-tempered doubles defeat at Wimbledon.

The 30-year-old Spaniard and his Uruguayan doubles partner Pablo Cuevas were looking for a place in the quarter finals, playing against Britain’s Jonathan Marray and his Canadian partner Adil Shamasdin.

But they soon lost their cool after some questionable line calls were followed by the French umpire, Aurelie Tourte, refusing to allow Cuevas a toilet break during the final set.

Tourte alleges Cuevas then threatened to pee into an empty ball can under the cover of a towel, earning the pair a code violation.

Royally peed off, the Uruguayan smashed the ball out of court, earning a second code violation and triggering a points penalty in the business end of the deciding set.

The penalty left Marray and Shamasdin with triple match-point.

Granollers and Cuevas then refused to carry on playing,  staging a 15-minute sit-in protest on court. They agreed to continue when threatened with forfeiture, but soon lost the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 14-12.

They may now face fines for their behaviour.

“I don’t think it’s ever nice to see,” said Marray afterwards, “You have to respect the officials regardless of whatever happened in the match.”

Shamasdin admitted that umpire Tourte could have handled the situation better.

“I don’t think the chair umpire really had the match controlled,” he said, “she made a few mistakes early on at both ends. We were all on her and she was definitely flustered. I don’t think she handled it correctly.”

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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