There was a spicy ending to Stefanos Tsitsipas’ clash with Arthur Fils as the pair suddenly started trading words in a heated exchange, forcing the umpire to come down off his chair and intervene while fans in the SuperTennis Arena jeered and whistled.

Tsitsipas raced through the first set, but he suffered his fourth defeat in four meetings with Fils as the young French star won 2-6 6-4 6-2. No. 18 seed Tsitsipas tagged Fils with a ball during the second set, and the 20-year-old took it personally, using it to fuel him for the rest of the match.

Things initially appeared amicable when Fils and Tsitsipas approached the net to shake hands at the end of their one-hour and 53-minute battle. But the Greek star initiated a conversation about the moment he tagged his opponent in the second set and things boiled over.

Greg Allensworth rushed over to intervene as Tsitsipas tried to explain that it was an accident.

“It’s not a problem but you touch me,” Fils replied, explaining that he used it as motivation. “I need to find that energy you know? No, there is nothing wrong with you.”

Sky Sports commentator Jonathan Overend was stunned when they cut away from the broadcast of Emma Raducanu’s match to show the spicy handshake.

“Take a look here at the exchange at the net. Those don’t look like pleasantries. There was a moment where Tsitsipas absolutely drilled a ball, a passing shot,” he said.

“Look at this, this is unusual. Greg Allensworth the umpire has to get down. And this is heating up. Tsitsipas with a passing shot drills it straight at Fils, which we often say in commentary is the best place to go.

“But this is very, very unusual, to see an exchange between two players at the end of the match go on this long with the umpire in attendance, not far away from having to separate them there.”

The players appeared to patch things up and went their separate ways as the umpire commended them for their “good job” in the match.

Afterwards, Fils addressed the tense exchange and claimed that he didn’t have a problem with Tsitsipas hitting him. “I like him, he’s a great guy, a great champion,” the 13th seed said.

“Was a bit tight in the middle of the second set, he went for my body. It’s part of the game, there is nothing wrong with it but I tried to find a way to fight so I found this kind of excuse to go and to fight.

“Okay, he told me at the end he was not going for my body. And I told him, ‘I know it, I know it, it’s okay, it’s all good. I just needed to find a way to fight’. Yeah, it worked!”

Commentators were still confused that such a non-issue became so heated at the end. “Not quite sure that cleared up everything we needed to know,” Nick Lester said on the world feed.

“But anyway, it was felt that Tsitsipas was initially apologising and then goodness knows where that conversation went.”