[imagesource: AFP]

Italians are renowned for wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but the confrontation between countrymen Fabio Fognini and Salvatore Caruso was still a rather unusual sight.

The two had battled for just shy of four hours in their Australian Open second-round match, with Fognini triumphing 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (14-12), and there was no love lost between the two.

Perhaps it’s the pre-tournament quarantine, but players are especially grouchy at this year’s tournament, and there have already been a number of incidents.

The customary handshake at the net seemed off, and then the two players went at each other once they began packing their bags at their respective chairs.

Eventually, officials stepped in to ensure that the pair separated, which is something you don’t see on the court very often:

For those who don’t speak Italian, here’s the same video with translations starting from around the 25-second mark.

I can’t vouch for the translation accuracy:

The Telegraph has also gone through the trouble of translating the exchange, which you can read here.

In the past, Fognini has upset both Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal with his backchat, and during the 2017 US Open, he called chair umpire Louise Engzell a “whore”.

I’m firmly in Caruso’s corner on this one, then.

As for Nadal, he was also on the receiving end of a verbal barracking, although his incident involved a spectator inside Rod Laver Arena, which is Melbourne’s answer to Centre Court:

…Nadal was about to serve for the second set against Michael Mmoh of the USA, [when] a woman in the stands shouted out “Hurry up you OCD f—!” and held up her middle finger in his direction…

Thanks to this year’s smaller attendances, every shout rings out much more clearly. Nadal took the interruption in his stride, grinning and pointing to his own chest as if to say “Are you talking to me?”

Nadal handled it like a champ, and the woman was booted from the arena:

On the way out, the crowd made their feelings known:

Nadal defeated Mmoh 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, and had a chuckle about the verbal abuse after the match.

Watch from the 2:50 mark:

According to Ozzie outlet Fox Sports, the heckler, named only as Lisa, is anything but contrite.

She called into a radio show early on Friday morning and stood by her actions:

“I’m certainly not a fan of Nadal,” Lisa told Neil Mitchell.

“I think he’s incredibly boring and he goes through all those OCD rituals all the time.

“The only reason I happened to be at the match is because I wanted a ticket to see the previous female match between Coco Gauff and Elina Svitolina and I stuck around to watch the boring Nadal.

“The very fact that apparently pictures of me have gone viral, even around the world, reflects on how incredibly boring his matches are, because why would you want to focus on a spectator?”

When asked if she had consumed a few toots prior to flipping Nadal the bird, she had this to say;

Nadal said ‘Lisa’ may’ve had too much gin or tequila, something she addressed on Friday by clarifying she had “one glass of bubbly” before clarifying that she “possibly” was impacted by alcohol consumed prior to the match.

I only had one drink, your honour, aside from all the drinks I had before that.

Onwards and upwards, Rafa.

[sources:telegraph&foxsports]