Hugo Gaston was fined 72,000 euros for trying to cheat at the Masters 1000 in Madrid. The Frenchman deliberately dropped the ball from his pocket on a smash from the Croatian in order to replay the point. A severely reprimanded cheating attempt on which the French player returned after his defeat as soon as he entered the running at Roland-Garros, beaten by Alex Molcan, 86th player in the world on Tuesday. “A lot of people said I wanted to cheat, which is not true. Every tennis player has gestures that he cannot control, it was a gesture of frustration; it was at the end of the first set. I also heard that there were recurrences, that it was not the first time. There have been recurrences of the fact that I have taken fines, but never a gesture like that because these are things that do not represent me. I knew it directly after the game. I apologized to my opponent. The match went very well after that. There was no problem at the time, the referee had not seen it. It’s something that’s not right to do, but it was an act of frustration, not cheating. At no time was the point replayed and at no time would I have replayed the point. These are things that don’t happen. I also apologized to the Federation which helps me on a daily basis. Again, this is something that is not right to do, I admit. I’ve seen a lot of things in the media, it’s not fun because they always say things that we don’t know if it’s true or not. I know the situation: it’s an act of frustration that’s not good, but it’s part of life. We don’t always react well. I made a mistake, I paid for it. It’s like that. Again, in no way was this a cheating move. It was a gesture of 100% frustration.”
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