LONDON: Benoit Paire was warned for not trying at Wimbledon on Tuesday as the controversial French player made such a tame exit that a fan screamed: "Stop wasting our time".
Paire went down to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 loss to Diego Schwartzman in a match carried over from Monday with the Argentine two sets up.
The third set took just 15 minutes to complete with umpire Mohamed Lahyani warning world number 46 Paire to try harder.
Paire accused Lahyani of being "over-zealous" and that the stage of the match meant "there was nothing to be done".
As he dumped two forehands into the net, a fan sitting close to him, screamed: "Stop wasting our time!"
"I took a warning for not trying at 5-0, 30-0 in the third set and we have only been playing for 15 minutes," said Paire after the match.
"I have the right to miss two returns in a row. I think it's ridiculous."
Paire made the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2019 and had not been beaten in the first round since 2014.
However, he has cut a frustrated and controversial figure in recent months, blasting the restrictions on the sport caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
He lost in the first round at Roland Garros having exited Monte Carlo by claiming he didn't "give a damn" about the sport.
Paire was also banished from selection for the Olympic team due to his "repeated deeply ill-judged behaviour" French tennis chiefs said.
"I have always said these bubble conditions are complicated for me. As long as it is like that, I do my best, I do what I can," he insisted Tuesday.
"We are being put in bubbles when everyone (in London) is outside in bars drinking shots, no one is wearing a mask outside, there are spectators talking to me, one centimetre away and that they don't have a mask.
"They can give me Covid."