Novak Djokovic fumes at umpire over playing conditions at rain-affected Italian Open

Novak Djokovic eventually progressed to the last-16 after a rain delay

(Getty Images)

World number one Novak Djokovic was involved in a furious disagreement with the chair umpire at the Italian Open on Tuesday when his second-round match against Taylor Fritz was not suspended due to rain.

After he was broken while serving for the match in the second set, and with rain falling on the court in Rome, Djokovic yelled: “How much do you wanna play?”

When the umpire, Nacho Forcadell, said he had checked the court, Djokovic replied: “I asked you three times, you are not checking anything.”

Play was then stopped at 5-5 in the second set, before Djokovic closed out the match three hours later when conditions had improved.

“It’s not the first time or probably the last that I’m going to experience such conditions,” Djokovic told Amazon Prime afterwards.

“And even with that much experience behind me I still get upset and lose my cool. But it’s OK. At the end of the day these are great lessons - I will try and take away some important things from this day.”

Djokovic will face the winner of Briton Cameron Norrie’s match with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the last-16.

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