Corentin Moutet, French tennis player who recently reached his career highest rank at World No. 30 in April, may have got into trouble for a crude humour joke he made at London with a BBC reporter during Queen's Club championship, after defeating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 on Tuesday.
Moutet, now ranked 36th, was asked by the reporter about his opponent's powerful serve used in a match point, and he spoke unfiltered. "When I had the match point, I thought: 'It's the second serve, you get in the middle and just return the ball,' and he hit me an ace at 228 km/h and I thought: 'Fuck, I'm going to have to serve."
Politely, the reporter, Jenny Drummond, asked him "no f-words, please", and Moutet immediately responded "f*ck, f*ck, f*ck", causing the spectators to laugh. The reporter responded "no, no, no!, sorry everyone for the language", and asked him another question. Instead of answering, the 27-year-old said the f-word three more times, causing Drummond to abandon the interview.
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When coming back to the studio, BBC presenter Claire Balding apologised again for viewers. "Corentin Moutet living up to his bad-boy image. 'Chaos makes the muses' is what he wrote on the camera screen there. It's a tattoo that he has as well. And, yes, chaos is what he can create."
According to RMC Sport, Moutet's embarrassing actions, which caused laughter in the audience, could cost him a monetary fine. ATP hasn't announced anything yet, but it would be as a deduction from the £33,000, €38,000 he won with the victory.
Moutet will next face fourth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in round of 16 on Thursday.