Tennis star claims his opponent threatened to ‘KILL’ him during fiery clash and fumes at officials for their surprise reaction: ‘I’m afraid to sleep’

• Frenchman Corentin Moutet is midway through a charged clash with Pavel Kotov 
• 26-year-old made the allegation on social media before later deleting the post 

By TAMARA PRENN

A French tennis player has claimed that he was given a death threat at the net by his opponent in a Challenger tournament on Wednesday afternoon. 

Corentin Moutet was taking part in the Open Aix Provence Credit Agricole in Aix-en-Provence this week, playing his first-round tie against Pavel Kotov. 

A place in the second-round remains in play for both players, with bad light having suspended their tussle at 7-5, 3-6 to Moutet, and with the third set at 5-5. 

But the 26-year-old could yet be unwilling to return to face off with his Russian opponent, having alleged that Kotov said that he would ‘kill him’ if he returned to face off with him at the net. 

In a post on social media which was later deleted by the player, Moutet claimed that Kotov had told him: ‘Next time you come to the net, I’ll kill you. 

‘One day, someone will kill you.’ 

Corentin Moutet suggested that he was given death threats by his opponent on Wednesday

Former world No50 Pavel Kotov is alleged to have told Moutet that he was going to be ‘killed’

Moutet posted and later deleted the allegations on social media site X, before re-sharing them when published elsewhere

Directing the remainder of the post at his followers, and the ATP, Moutet added: ‘There wasn’t even a warning. Apparently, those words are allowed on court. 

‘How do you (the ATP) expect me not to get involved if you don’t do your job?’

After deleting the social media message, Moutet later returned to the platform to reshare a report of the events, adding: ‘I’m going to have trouble sleeping…’

World No121 Kotov has not responded to the allegations publicly. 

But the pair will be forced to continue their clash on Thursday afternoon.  

Moutet has often courted controversy on the tennis tour, most recently embroiling himself in a showdown with world No75 Alexander Bublik during which the Kazakh star offered to ‘meet (Moutet) in the car park’. 

‘You want to fight? The French kid is speaking and he doesn’t want to fight.’ Bublik said after both players had shaken hands with the umpire. 

‘Let’s go. We meet in 10 minutes outside.’

The pair came face-to-face the following day as play resumed on Thursday afternoon

Moutet recently clashed with Kazkh star Alexander Bublik (in purple), with the world No75 calling out the Frenchman to fight

Last year’s Madrid Open also saw Moutet engage in a battle of words with the umpire after she denied him the opportunity to drink a coffee during his four-hour epic against Shang Jungcheng. 

‘It doesn’t matter where we play, we don’t provide coffee,’ the umpire said in an attempt to placate the Frenchman. ‘I cannot bring it to you.’ 

Moutet instead went into furious detail about the other refreshments on offer at the tournament, before adding sarcastically: ‘Am I asking for caviar?’ 

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Tennis star claims his opponent threatened to ‘KILL’ him during fiery clash and fumes at officials for their surprise reaction: ‘I’m afraid to sleep’

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