MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (AP) - By his own admission, Jerzy Janowicz didn’t just argue with the chair umpire during a tense first-set tiebreak against India’s Somdev Devvarman, he went a little “nuts.”
Leading 9-8 in the tiebreak, Janowicz snapped when his opponent hit a forehand down the line he believed was out. The chair umpire, Marija Cicak, ruled otherwise.
Evidently feeling he’d been wronged by Cicak previously, the Pole began screaming at her, “How many times? How many times?” before dropping to his knees on the court and spitting on the line. “I’m begging you!” he screamed at Cicak.
“I was just worried about his voice,” Devvarman said. “I mean, the guy was yelling at the top of his lungs and I was like, `Dude, just calm down.’”
After losing the tiebreak 12-10, Janowicz’s tirade continued. He hit the umpire’s chair and tossed a water bottle across the court. That earned him a code violation.
The 24th-seeded Pole finally prevailed in the four-hour match, 6-7 (10), 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5. Now he must wait and see if he receives a fine for his outburst.
“You can’t control your emotions all the time,” he said in a much better mood after the match. “Actually, I went nuts. I calmed down little bit later on. Sometimes I have problem to control by emotions, but I’m trying to work on this.”
Asked if he ever hit an umpire’s chair before, he smiled sheepishly. “Maybe,” he said.
International Tennis Federation officials said they will review the umpire’s reports in the morning and decide whether a fine is warranted. Janowicz, for one, believes he should be in the clear. “I didn’t say anything bad, so I hope I not have to pay.”
By late Wednesday, Janowicz’s outburst had been viewed 10,435 times on YouTube. He has a ways to go before he matches Marcos Baghdatis’ temper tantrum during last year’s Australian Open when the Cypriot smashed four rackets in a row. That video has been viewed 1.4 million times and counting.
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TWITTER’S NEW STAR: She’s only been on Twitter for two days _ and has only sent two tweets _ but already Maria Sharapova has more than 60,000 followers.
The Russian star doesn’t want to let her fans down, so she is trying to master the Twitter lingo.
“I’m a rookie,” she said after her second-round win over Misaki Doi at the Australian Open on Wednesday. “I’m just starting to follow things and people. Now I’m learning how to, is it, hashtag things, right? That was a new one for me.”
Sharapova is also trying to learn the art of self-restraint on social media.
“I won’t be doing it like every single minute. I won’t be telling people what I’m eating,” she promises. “I think that’s very non-interesting.”
She also held back with criticism of the commentating while she was watching an Australian Open match on television the other night.
“I really bit my tongue on that one,” she said. “I was like, `Isn’t that what Twitter is for, to open up?’”
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BROTHERLY LOVE: Much has changed in their lives since 2003 when identical twins Mike and Bob Bryan won the first of their 12 Grand Slam doubles titles at the French Open.
Two years ago, Bob got married to his wife Michelle and, last January, he flew home hours after his loss in the doubles final at the Australian Open for the birth of the couple’s first child, daughter Micaela.
And last November, Mike married his longtime girlfriend, Lucille, in California. Naturally, his brother was his best man and gave what he deemed a fairly decent speech, despite feeling pretty nervous about it.
“I didn’t plan anything, I just wanted to go wing it. I just kind of blacked out, woke up after the speech. I can’t remember one thing I said,” Bob Bryan said Wednesday after the brothers’ first-round doubles win at this year’s Australian Open.
Although they will turn 35 in a few months, and have more personal commitments in their lives, the brothers still have goals left in tennis, starting with a record 13th Grand Slam trophy _ and perhaps a sixth at Melbourne Park.
They currently share the doubles Grand Slam record of 12 titles with the Australian legends John Newcombe and Tony Roche.
“There’s a few things we want to check off here in the new year and you know, we’re feeling refreshed,” Mike Bryan said.
The Americans are the favorites again in Melbourne _ they finished 2012 as the No. 1 team in the world for the eighth time in the past 10 years and come into the Australian Open as the top seeds.
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