Feliciano López calls out Aussie fans in crowd for distracting him

Spanish tennis player Feliciano López has called out Aussie fans for distracting him in his match against John Millman.

Spanish tennis player Feliciano Lopez has confronted spectators in the crowd at the Australian Open for distracting him while he was trying to serve against Australian World No. 89 John Millman.

Millman became Australia’s third player into the second round of the grand slam on day one of the tournament after he defeated the Spaniard 6-1 6-3 4-6 7-5, following Ash Barty’s thumping win and Aleksandar Vukic’s shock upset.

But it wasn’t without its controversy.

Millman, a veteran in his own right, was playing Lopez, who at 40 is the oldest man in the draw at Melbourne Park, played out a tight four-setter as each brought their trademark grit.

However, with Lopez leading 2-1 in the third set, the vocal crowd who was behind Millman started to get on the Spaniard’s nerves.

“Why? why? why?” López asked three spectators on Monday night after they made too much noise as he was preparing to serve..

Channel 9 commentators noted the fans were “getting around” Millman when López was serving.

Feliciano Lopez has a word to the umpire.

The umpire makes a sign to the crowd.

A member of the crowd signals to the umpire.

After being called out, one of the fans raised both his hands as if to say “sorry” and “OK”, while another shook his head.

But there were no hard feelings, with López telling news.com.au in a press conference after the match that he was happy to be back playing in front of fans after playing to empty stadiums for so long.

“It was a few guys cheering and trying to distract me between serves but this is normal, I like playing in that kind of atmosphere you know, but sometimes it can get a little bit wild, especially in between serves which is not easy,” he said.

Despite the result, Lopez said he was “very happy” to have made it to the Australian Open after having Covid recently.

Respect between Feliciano Lopez and John Millman. Photo by MICHAEL ERREY / AFP

After the match, Millman paid tribute to the vocal home crowd, who he said helped get him over the line.

“He started landing that serve in the third and fourth set and against those guys you only get one or two opportunities,” he said. “I thought maybe I’d blown it in that fourth set when I had a couple of little break points but he came up with some great serves under pressure. I think maybe the crowd got behind me.”

It just gets harder for Millman in the second round as he faces third seed Alexander Zverev, who had a 7-6 6-1 7-6 win over Daniel Altmaier.