Wawrinka Tells Fan to Shut Up During Win over Bellucci

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Wawrinka Tells Fan to Shut Up During Win over Bellucci

Stan Wawrinka looked to be headed for a nice, easy straight-sets win against the talented but under achieving Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil on Wednesday night at the US Open, but when Bellucci sprang to life to push Wawrinka to a fourth set, then threatened to take him to five with more explosive ball-bashing, the Swiss No. 2 got a little bit testy.

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Late in the fourth set, with Wawrinka serving at 5-5, 40-15, he couldn’t help giving a heckler in the front row a piece of his mind. Listen carefully to the above video to hear Wawrinka say “Shut up, man, seriously, shut up.”

Naturally Wawrinka’s direct approach to crowd control got a rise from the fans, but Wawrinka quickly defused the situation by serving out the game and heading to his chair while tournament referee Brian Earley and security headed over to the offending section to ask a few questions.

Everything quickly quieted down from there, and after Bellucci forced the fourth-set tiebreaker, Wawrinka put on his assassin mask and swept through the tiebreaker like a thief in the night, taking it with ease to close out the 6-3 6-4 3-6 7-6(1) victory and book a spot in the third round where he’ll face Blaz Kavcic.

All in all, we have to say that Wawrinka did an effective job of crowd management. They shut up, and he won the match against an in-form Bellucci who proved to be a very dangerous opponent on a hot, muggy night in New York.

Update: After the match this Twitter exchange between Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times and Wawrinka shed some light on the origin of Wawrinka's angst and the condition of the fan: