Penalty higher than annual income
Cheap trick becomes really expensive for tennis rascals
05/23/2023 10:42 am
Hugo Gaston is one of the lesser-known professionals on the tennis circuit. But now the Frenchman is in the spotlight: because of a cheap trick, the 22-year-old has to pay a huge fine.
Hugo Gaston is number 108 in the tennis world rankings, his everyday sporting life takes place away from the limelight of the big professional circus. But this time the Frenchman got a lot of attention – and should be extremely unhappy about it: The ATP, the organization of tennis professionals, fined Gaston $ 144,000 (133,000 euros) for unsportsmanlike conduct. In the current season, the 22-year-old has won around 122,000 dollars (112,000 euros) in prize money.
At the Masters tournament in Madrid, Gaston was caught taking a ball out of his pocket and throwing it to the ground on a set point against him – while his opponent Borna Coric launched a smash winner to win the set. “This was Gaston’s fourth unsportsmanlike conduct offense of the 2023 season.” The fine would be halved “subject to certain conditions, including Gaston’s absence of further such violations during a 12-month trial period”. Gaston lost the match 3-6, 3-6.
If there is an unintentional interference during a rally, the point is retaken. The stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andy Murray provided a curious and much-noticed example of the rule at the 2022 tournament in Rotterdam: Murray wiped his cap off his head with a hitting movement and then stopped playing. “I promise I’m not trying to cheat. I hit the ball, then suddenly my cap fell off, then I stopped playing,” Olympic champion Murray assured opponents and referees. “Felix, I swear it was. I’m sorry.” The point was repeated, Murray fended off a match point – and lost the match a point later.
However, if a player deliberately disturbs the opponent, he automatically loses the point. This became repeat offender Gaston, who clearly and intentionally brought a second ball into play in Madrid, now (expensively) undoing. “Completely excessive fine for Hugo Gaston because of his unsportsmanlike behavior in Madrid,” commented tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg on the ATP’s decision. “Totally outside the scale of normal ATP disciplinary action.”
The amount of the penalty for Gaston can be explained by his notorious urge to cheat from the ATP point of view. “According to the ATP rules, which will apply from 2023, the fines for unsportsmanlike conduct will increase by 100% for each subsequent violation in the same season,” the ATP said in a statement. The ATP fined the German Alexander Zverev last year to the tune of 40,000 dollars (37,000 euros) after he violently hit the referee’s chair with his racket at the tournament in Acapulco. In addition, Zverev had to repay his prize money of $ 30,000 (EUR 28,000).
After all: The wild card that the organizers of the French Open donated to Hugo Gaston and that puts him directly into the main draw of the Grand Slam tournament, which is worth almost 50 million euros, takes away the horror of the huge penalty a bit: even a first-round exit Roland Garros would flush 69,000 euros to the Frenchman’s account.