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Telegraph
12 hours ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Tennis player calls umpire a ‘f---ing t---' at Queen's
French tennis maverick Corentin Moutet shocked the well-heeled fans at Queen's Club with a furious meltdown as he lost his second-round match against Britain's Jacob Fearnley. Moutet appeared to swear at chair umpire Adel Nour as part of an extended rant towards the end of his 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 defeat. The world No 89 is renowned for being one of the spicier characters on the circuit, as well as a creative genius with a wide range of drop shots and ingenious tricks at his disposal. He was unhappy with Nour during the final changeover of the match. He had just been docked a first serve for a second time violation, which followed an earlier warning for ball abuse when he smacked a ball clean out of the stadium. Marching up to the chair at 2-5 in the deciding set, Moutet told Nour: 'Saying time violations, it is your only job. I am talking to you because I have three balls in my hand. Then you give me a time violation and you say, 'Don't talk to me'. What is wrong with you? With your Rolex.' He then appeared to call the umpire a f---ing t---, half under his breath, before returning to his seat and carrying on with: 'I am running every day for three hours and you are telling me what I have to do. It's crazy. This guy's crazy! Killing me every day.' When it comes to run-ins with players and officials, Moutet is a repeat offender. He was defaulted from a match in Adelaide in 2022 for saying 'f--- you' to an umpire, and lost his funding from the French Tennis Federation after another incident in the same season in which he and his opponent Adrian Andreev started pushing each other on the court. @ 🎥 Twitter/Imad__26 🎾 Corentin Moutet and Adrian Andreev almost had a fight. #tennis #tennislegend #tennistiktok #tennisvideo #tennisplayer #tennisfun #tennislife #tennismatch #tennistournament #tennisfans #corentinmoutet #moutet ♬ Then, in Arizona in March, the chair umpire had to separate Moutet from another opponent – this time Alexander Bublik – after they argued about whether Moutet was ready to receive serve or not. In the middle of that imbroglio, Bublik asked: 'You want to fight?' @justballtennis What happened here? Things getting really spicy between Bublik and Moutet! 👀 ( 📷: @gabrielbuck_art) #tennis #tennisplayers #tennispro #bublik #moutet #angrytennis #fight #tennismatch #rivalry #tennisfans ♬ original sound - JustBall Tennis The BBC, which is running live coverage of Queen's, did not feel the need to apologise for Moutet's swear words on Thursday, perhaps because it was not projected with quite the same volume as the rest of his outburst. Neither did Moutet receive a fine from tournament officials. But commentators John Lloyd and Sam Smith could not help chuckling over Moutet's behaviour. 'The longer Corentin stays out here the more trouble he can get himself into,' Smith said, after the rant. 'He's lost it,' chimed Lloyd. ''This guy's crazy?' Look in the mirror.' Fearnley showed great composure amid the chaos to close out his win, which earned him his first trip to an ATP quarter-final. 'I never thought I would be in these moments,' said a delighted Fearnley. 'I still can't quite believe it.' With regard to Moutet's tantrum, Fearnley added: 'I played Corentin before, and yeah, I kind of know that's what he's going to do. He's going to get angry. He's going to talk to the ref. So when he was doing it, it wasn't really a surprise.' Alcaraz wins longest match in 34 years Moutet was not the only player at Queen's who fell foul of an umpire's timekeeping. Around halfway through his three-set win over Jaume Munar, world No 2 Carlos Alcaraz received a time violation and replied that he had not had enough opportunity to dry his hands on his towel between points. The contest between Munar and Alcaraz became out the longest match to be played at Queen's in 34 years. Their struggle lasted 3hr 23min before Alcaraz floated a delicious backhand lob over the net-rushing Munar to seal his 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 victory. Really, Alcaraz should have been back in the locker room an hour earlier. He held match point on his own serve at 6-4 in the second-set tie-break, only to double-fault and invite the persevering Munar back into the contest. But then, this is exactly the sort of outing that Alcaraz often seems to struggle with. While nobody could compare the plush lawns of Queen's Club to the proverbial wet Wednesday night at Stoke – especially in light of the baking sun – there was a sense of a foregone conclusion about the match-up. Munar arrived with a grass-court win ratio of just 27 per cent. Afterwards, Alcaraz alluded to the lengthy, baseline-dominated nature of the rallies as he took a pen and decorated the camera lens with the words '3hr 30: were we on clay?'


BBC News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Gossip: Uncertainty around Nuno's future
Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo might leave the club at the end of this season because of internal tensions. (Footmercato - in French), externalWant more news? Read Wednesday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport


Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Brexit deal ‘couldn't have gone better' say French fishermen
French fishermen said they 'couldn't have hoped for better' after Sir Keir Starmer surrendered a 12-year deal on fish to the EU. The Prime Minister gave up access to British waters as part of his reset deal with Brussels, which was unveiled alongside EU chiefs in London on Monday. He made the major concession in a 'fish for food' deal to secure a trade-boosting veterinary agreement with the EU, after being ambushed in late-night talks. 'We couldn't have hoped for better,' said Olivier Lepretre, president of the Hauts-de-France regional fisheries committee. 'We are very satisfied, and relieved,' he told the France3 television channel: 'This changes a lot of things. If we no longer had access to British waters, we would have suffered a significant loss of revenue.' He added: 'We had a completely blocked horizon , and this agreement gives us visibility.' The original post-Brexit fishing deal offered the EU five years of access to UK waters. It expires next year. But France, and others, made agreeing a replacement a condition for the Swiss-style veterinary deal and UK-EU defence pact in the reset agreement. As late as Sunday, the UK was insisting any fish deal would have to last four years but that trebled in last-minute negotiations to land the agreement under pressure from Emmanuel Macron. 'This is excellent news for our fishermen', said Agnes Pannier-Runacher, French minister for ecological transition, the sea and fisheries. Other European fishermen also reacted with joy and praised Paris and Brussels for their tough negotiations. Spain has 40 vessels fishing in British waters, which are also fished by Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. 'The best possible outcome' Ivan Lopez van der Veen, vice-chair of Spain's Cepesca fishing confederation said: 'This was the best deal we could get. 'We had no expectation of increasing our quotas. For the sector, I think it is the best possible outcome. It allows for stability and to reinvigorate the fleet.' He said: 'We would have liked it to be a permanent agreement but 12 years is a good basis for joint management of those waters, as we have always done.' Mr López van der Veen added: 'I cheer for all members that pushed for a deal. We have 27 states and they are all playing for the EU.' 'We are pleased that the highest level in the EU recognises that fishing is an important industry for all of Europe,' said Svend-Erik Andersen, chairman of the Danish fisheries association. Sir Keir claimed that the new deal was good for British fishermen because it offered them long-term stability and did not increase European catch quotas. Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, also insisted that fishermen had lost 'absolutely nothing' in the new EU deal. Alistair Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat MP and chairman of the rural affairs committee, told Mr Reed that the fisheries often 'get traded off against something else'. In response, the Cabinet minister said: 'I do want to really emphasise this point, because you said fishing was traded out in this deal. It wasn't. 'They've lost absolutely nothing, and they've gained things, particularly access that we did not have before.' But Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish fishermen's federation, said: 'This deal is a horror show for Scottish fishermen, far worse than Boris Johnson's botched Brexit agreement.' The veterinary deal will remove post-Brexit border checks and red tape in exchange for the UK agreeing to align with EU laws on plant and animal health rules. That will benefit British exports, including fish. More than 70 per cent of the fish caught by British boats is sold to the EU. EU bans on exports of live British shellfish imposed after Brexit will also be lifted. Dimitri Rogoff, president of the regional committee for maritime fisheries and marine farming of Normandy, said: 'In Normandy, we're very sensitive to the issue of scallops, it's an extremely important fishery for us. 'We know that British products are fished on the French side, and that these products are sent to the French market at very low prices, which brings prices down a little. So in the end we're competing with our British friends on a product.'