Andy Murray believes players need to be more careful in how they talk to officials and that tennis can learn a lot from rugby on this issue.
Murray's second-round opponent at Indian Wells on Friday will be Andrei Rublev, who was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct in Dubai last week.
The world No. 5 challenged a decision in the final set of his semi-final against Alexander Bublik and screamed in front of the linesman.
“I think all of us players, and I'm guilty of that myself, have to be a little bit careful about how we talk to officials and how we treat officials,” Murray said.
“There's a big difference between rugby and football. Rugby is a good example of how to deal with that. The people involved are treated with respect and perhaps tennis can deal with it better as well.”
“At the end of the day, we as players shouldn't do things like that. It's us who are at fault, not the officials.”
Rublev defaulted after a Russian-speaking official told ATP manager Roland Herfer that the 26-year-old swore in Russian at a linesman.
Rublev denied speaking Russian and subsequently won an appeal against the loss of his ranking points and prize money that week. The ATP Committee determined that the penalty in this case was “disproportionate”.
Mr Rublev's $36,400 (£28,700) fine for breaching the rules remains in place despite his appeal. In his social media posts, the player promised to learn from the experience and “try to be a better player and person,” but did not apologize for his actions.
Another recent high-profile incident was Alexander Zverev's disqualification from the 2022 Mexican Open.
The German player was banned for eight weeks after angrily hitting the referee's chair several times after a doubles match, once almost missing the referee's foot.
“I understand that sometimes things happen in the heat of battle, but I think over the last four or five years there have probably been a number of instances where the line has been crossed and perhaps not enough has been done about it. “I guess so,” Murray continued.
“So I think we probably all need to look at ourselves a little bit and say, 'Is this really the way to deal with bureaucrats and bad calls?'”
Murray will face Rublev in California by 8:30pm Japan time.
