Taylor Fritz labelled a crowd member shouting midway through a point "disgusting" following defeat to Novak Djokovic in the ATP Finals. Fritz and Djokovic were battling it out in the final four of the season finale in Turin.
With plenty on the line, the clash was a tight affair in the early stages. As a result, it was Djokovic who claimed the opener via a tie break, but Fritz looked set to get himself back into in set two.
The American youngster found himself 5-4 up in the second, and was on the brink of levelling things up against the 21-time Grand Slam champion.
With Fritz just one game and two points away from drawing up the match at 1-1, the American was seemingly put off mid-point as he looked to claw his way back into it. The crowd call saw him lose the point, and left bemused Fritz dropped his racket to the floor.
This would prove costly, as Djokovic went on to replicate set one as claimed a second tie break to win the match in straight sets 7-6, 7-6. Unsurprisingly Fritz was less than impressed with the poor crowd etiquette, and hit out at the fan in question post-match.
He said: "Now is probably not the best time for me to give a good answer for the reflection of the week because I’m extremely upset about the match, more so about the things that happen in a match that I can’t control.
"I’m sure in two weeks from now I’ll look back and say ‘yeah it was a really good week." Then asked if he was referring to the crowd call out, he went on: "Yeah, the person purposely trying to mess me up, yeah.”
The angered 25-year-old went on: "It’s one of those things. It’s like what can you do? If you make a rule that you can replay a point, then the guy is just going to yell when I’m about to win a point, then we’re going to have to replay.
It’s just going to happen the reverse way. I can’t expect anybody to be like, replay the point because in that situation, I can’t say that I would do that either. I can’t expect anyone to either.
“I kinda got screwed and there’s nothing that really can be done about it. You get used to playing in absolute silence your whole career. It’s normal that the crowd maybe makes a noise when there’s a crazy point going on. You expect it, you’re ready for it.
“But when someone just flat-out screaming just to purposely try and throw you off – it’s not something you’re used to. When it happens, it’s an absolute shock. It’s disgusting.” Djokovic on the other hand went on to take full advantage, as he defeated Casper Ruud in straight sets on Sunday, to claim the end of season title.
