Roger Federer's wife's heckling reportedly caused dustup with Stan Wawrinka
Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka reportedly got into a heated discussion following the ATP Finals semifinal match on Saturday, in which Federer saved four match points and battled nearly three hours to come from behind and beat his fellow countryman in a thrilling 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6) win.
The UK's Telegraph cited "well-placed sources" who saw the two Swiss tennis stars hashing it out in the O2 Arena in London and reported the argument had to do with Wawrinka's annoyance that Federer's wife, Mirka, had heckled Wawrinka from the stands and called him a "crybaby" on court.
Wawrinka was able to keep his composure against the world No. 2 until he served for the match at 5-4 in the third and deciding set, when he dropped serve following three clumsy approaches to the net on match points.
Footage of a jittery Wawrinka, clearly annoyed by the crowd's heckles, was captured in the video below:
According to the Telegraph article, the two were encouraged to talk out their differences before Switzerland takes on France in the Davis Cup tournament final starting Friday.
Federer, for his part, tried to dispell any notions of lingering tension between the two with this photo of himself and Wawrinka (doing the rabbit ears) and the Swiss Davis Cup team, which he posted on his Twitter account Monday:
It's great being with the boys again .. And #captain #lüthi pic.twitter.com/iMWJUVKd0T
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) November 17, 2014
But now Federer's Davis Cup status is also in doubt, as back problems forced the 17-time Grand Slam champion to withdraw from the ATP final less than an hour before the title match against Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
