Casper Ruud issues awkward response after Madrid Open umpire row

Casper Ruud got into a spat with the umpire during his Madrid Open semi-final, and needed to be stricter. The world No. 15 wasn't happy when a fan started shouting out before his second serves and approached the chair, asking the umpire to step in.

The official could only remind the fans to be quiet and respectful, but Ruud wanted him to do more and hit out again during the changeover. The 26-year-old , and he has now awkwardly admitted that he "maybe overreacted", admitting he didn't "want to be a douche" towards his opponent.

Ruud is known for his polite, mild-mannered nature on and off the court. But even he grew frustrated when someone started shouting while he tried to serve in a tough, 15-minute game against Cerundolo on Friday.

The Norwegian approached the umpire and urged him to intervene. After holding serve, Ruud confronted him again while sitting on his bench.

"If you go, 'First serve for Ruud', hypothetically. I know you can't. Let's say you do it, do you think they are gonna do it again? Probably not," he argued. "I know you're doing your best but to say please don't do it again is not enough."

The umpire explained that there was nothing more he could do, and Ruud went on to seal a 6-4 7-5 victory, reaching his first Madrid Open final. After having some time to reflect, the former world No. 2 explained why he had to say something during the match.

"Well, ultimately it's a question of kind of the disturbance. I felt that the cheers were for Francisco, which is obviously not illegal, it's just a question of timing of it," he started.

"I think personally that if the umpire, like, let's say I re-did my routine and I was about to serve again, and he would do it again, like what's the protocol there? Like, how many times is a fan or someone from the crowd kind of allowed to disturb the player before I'm kind of allowed to react back."

Ruud said his question about giving him another first serve was merely hypothetical, though he awkwardly claimed he may have "overreacted" in the heat of the moment.

He continued: "So I'm just kind of asking the question, Maybe you should look at, maybe not changing the rules, but applying some more pressure to fans who are there to heckle or disturb.

"I understand, and that's really harsh for Francisco, because he hasn't done anything wrong, and I don't want to, you know, be a douche towards him, but the fans that are in favour for him are trying to disturb me. So if they see that that's not working, and I'm actually benefiting from them trying to disturb me, I think they wouldn't do it anymore.

"It's a very kind of tricky situation, and I understand that fans are allowed to cheer for whoever they want, but in tennis I feel like there is a somewhat of a kind of unwritten rules of what you do and what you shouldn't do as a spectator.

"Majority of the fans, they get it right, but when someone is there to disturb a bit too much, I think it crosses a line.

"So I just kind of asked the question to the umpire, and when you're in the heat of the moment and you don't feel like you get a clear answer it's easy to kind of get even more frustrated. And I maybe overreacted, but I think it was a valid question."

Ruud will now hope to put the incident behind him when he plays for his biggest career title on Sunday. The Norwegian is 0-2 in Masters finals but world No. 6 Jack Draper, the recent Indian Wells champion, .