Frances Tiafoe had an epic meltdown at the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday, as he cursed repeatedly at the chair umpire after losing to 61st-ranked Roman Safiullin in the third round. Tiafoe sent around 16 expletives towards Jimmy Pinoargote after crashing to a 5-7 7-5 7-6(5) defeat.

Tiafoe later took to Instagram to post a story, where he apologised to his fans. He wrote, "I really apologise for the way I acted tonight. That is not who I am and not how I ever want to treat people. I let my frustration in the heat of the moment get the best of me and I'm extremely disappointed with how I handled the situation. That's not acceptable behavior and I want to apologise to the umpire, the tournament and the fans. I'll be better for yall."

Tiafoe was annoyed by being docked his first serve for a time violation at 5-5 in the final set tiebreaker. Pinoargote ruled that it was not a genuine attempt to serve, and said, "I’m not buying it, it’s the second serve," and then went on to repeat it on the microphone.

After losing, Tiafoe congratulated his opponent at the net, and then turned towards the umpire and began a tirade of expletives. He also said that the umpire messed up the match, and also mentioned that it was a three hour match. Tiafoe also threatened the umpire that he would 'blacklist' him from his matches.

Saifullin will face Novak Djokovic in the next round, and decided to not interfere in the altercation and continued on with his business of celebrating and changing his shirt.

According to the ATP rule book, fines of 60,000 dollars are given at a Masters 1000 tournament for verbal abuse of an official. The tournament can also take away the prize money, and the case could also be sent to the ATP Members Fines Committee for further investigation.

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