Fabio Fognini used his mouth as a weapon to unnerve Andy Murray—and incite an epic three-set Shanghai win today.
Deadlocked at 5-all in the final set, Murray was at net knocking off an easy volley when Fognini suddenly shouted in an apparent distraction attempt.
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An irate Murray yelled at Fognini from across the net prompting the Italian to tell the former world No. 1 "don't look at me."
After Murray broke to take a 6-5 lead he unloaded on Fognini as the pair crossed paths walking toward their chairs prompting Murray to eventually yell "Shut up!" as he recounted the incident to chair umpire Fergus Murphy.
"You do the same thing every match—doesn't matter who you're playing," Murray told Fognini before arguing his case with chair umpire Murphy.
Fognini intervened at one point prompting Murray to yell "shut up!" at the theatrical Italian.
"I had a volley on top of the net he shouts and then tells me don't look at me," Murray said standing in front of Murphy's chair. "I'm like you just shouted at me in the middle of the point."
"You're telling me stuff that I know, but you're not giving me any chance to deal with him," Murphy replied. "If you sit down, I'm on top of it."
The chair umpire, who had hit Fognini with a code violation for ball abuse earlier in the match, turned to Fognini and said "Fabio, you shouldn't be shouting. Let's play tennis."
If the shout was Fognini's distraction card play to rattle his opponent, it worked.
While Murray fumed, a focused Fognini played some of his most dynamic tennis breaking back to force a tie break then unleashing a torrent of volley winners. Fognini won 11 of the last 15 points closing a contentious 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(2) triumph that spanned three hours, 10 minutes.
Afterward, Murray said Fognini told him "stop looking at me. What are you looking at me for?"
"He told me to have a sense of humor," Murray said, adding, "[the yelling is] against the rules, it's hindrance, you shouldn't do it. But he said I should have a sense of humor about that. I would say neither of us, in that moment, were in a joking, kind of a laughing mood. And that was the issue I had."
Judging by the brief handshake and stare down Murray gave Fognini at net it seems this match will linger the next time they meet.
Photo credit: Mike Frey/Rolex Shanghai Masters