Adriano Panatta lashes out at Frances Tiafoe: “Rude.”
Adriano Panatta lashes out at Frances Tiafoe: “Rude.”
While the American anthem was playing, moments before the challenge against Lorenzo Sonego, the cameras caught Frances Tiafoe with headphones to his ears. The gesture did not go unnoticed in the eyes of Adriano Panatta, commentator for Rai for the occasion, who without mincing words chastised the 24-year-old: “If I had been his captain I would have kicked him in the butt. Do you know where I would have put his headphones? He is rude.”
Adriano Panatta, born in Rome on July 9, 1950, is one of the best tennis players ever. In his palmares he boasts 10 major circuit tournaments in singles out of 26 finals played, as well as 18 doubles titles out of 28 finals. He is the only Italian tennis player to have won two titles in a category equivalent to the current ATP Masters 1000 in singles; in 1975 he became the first Italian to have qualified for an edition of the Masters men’s singles finals.
In his stellar career he also won the doubles tournament in Monte Carlo with Paolo Bertolucci, the only title won in the Open era by an Italian pair in the Principality’s tournament.
