It is a surreal scene that took place this Thursday at the ATP 250 tournament in Naples.
During the second round of the Neapolitan event between Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, the match came to an abrupt end shortly before the end of the first set.
Napoli R2: Another day, another story from Napoli.
This time, Corentin Moutet ret.
vs.
Miomir Kecmanovic 3-5.
Both players complained wrt the court condition, esp.
for being slippery.
⚠️ Also notice Moutet threw his racquet as well.
Reee.
🎥 Napoli feed pic.twitter.com/cO4kZ0Nt9T
— stateofsport21 // raz (she/her) (@eretzsport022) October 20, 2022
While trailing 4-3 by his Serbian opponent, the 65th player in the world serves to equalize.
But his service game does not go as he wishes.
At 40 everywhere, Moutet slips to the baseline and lets slip the point which gives an advantage to the 30th player in the world.
We see Moutet annoyed to have lost the point.
On the following exchange, he tries a climb to the net but misses.
Out of him, the French then throws his racket into a tarpaulin and then goes to the referee of the meeting.
After a visibly virulent exchange which seems to go on forever, Moutet announces to the referee his choice to abandon because the ground is too slippery according to him.
One more incident during a tournament which is definitely making headlines and causing controversy.
The chair umpire does not need to be asked and confirms Kecmanovic's qualification for the quarter-finals, finally winning 5-3 and by abandonment.
In the previous round, the day before, the 5th French player had experienced the worst difficulties to dismiss the Italian Luca Nardi (130th in the world) 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 at the end of a long fight of 3h31min.
