Fabio Fognini and Corentin Moutet shared an exceptionally tense handshake at the net following the Frenchman’s win in Stuttgart, with things very nearly turning ugly.
Moutet ran out the winner in three sets against the Italian veteran, winning 6-4 6-7 6-3 in Germany, in a fascinating encounter between two of the circuit’s more highly-strung characters.
Indeed, even before the drama at the close, Fognini had already snapped his racquet in two during the match.
But once Fognini’s miscued backhand sealed the tie in Moutet’s favour, the tense exchanged turned sour.
After pointing to his head and hitting the ball into the crowd, Moutet made his way towards the net.
Fognini, with his eyes intent on Moutet, approaches the net for a handshake, with the latter doing the same, but something appeared to not have sat right with the Italian.
Fabio Fognini and Corentin Moutet shared a tense handshake after the Frenchman’s victory
As they walked off the court the Italian veteran repeatedly told his rival to ‘look at me’ in French
Fognini seemed to call Moutet ‘a little pig’ and told him he was ‘s***’ in a furious rant
Despite Moutet clearly looking at him at first, and seemingly saying something that the microphones don’t catch, Fognini however doesn’t relinquish his grasp on his victor’s hand as they walk over to the umpire’s chair.
The Italian can then be heard speaking to Moutet in French, saying: ‘Look at me, look at me!’
Moutet chooses to ignore him, even when Fognini bars his way to his chair as both then shake hands with the umpire.
Yet Fognini is still clearly incensed by something, and appears to say: ‘Look at me little pig! You’re a piece of s***!’
Moutet seemingly continues to ignore the veteran before making his way off the court, taking in the applause of the crowd once more.
Fognini, the former World No 9, had been handed a wildcard entry for the event, but falls at the first round, while Moutet will go on to take on favourite Alexander Zverev.
While not so much the aggressor in this particular coming together, Moutet has been involved in similar on-court flare-ups before.
He had a coming together with Alexander Bublik earlier this year with the pair needing to be kept apart by chair umpire Marta Mrozinska.
Moutet reached the second round of the recent French Open where he lost to Novak Djokovic
Fiery Fognini once memorably clashed with Andy Murray, who told him to shut up on court
The Kazakhstan star became incensed after the Frenchman claimed he was not ready to face serve.
‘I don’t care!’ Bublik then retorted, before going one step further.
‘Do you want to fight? Let’s go, we’ll meet outside in ten minutes. This little Frenchman talks but he doesn’t want to fight!’
Fognini, for his part, has also had run-ins with Andy Murray in the past, who once told him to ‘shut up’ mid-match back in 2019.
