Dan Evans, the British No 2, has a knack for attracting controversy – although he did his best to stay neutral on Thursday when a lengthy argument erupted during his straight-sets victory over Jeremy Chardy.

While Evans sat quietly like a choirboy during the sermon, his French opponent raged at chair umpire Miriam Bley and then supervisor Asita Attigala for a good ten minutes before finally being persuaded to resume play.

The issue related to one of tennis’s weirder rules – which states that if something falls on the court during a rally, the point should be replayed. In this case, a ball fell out of Chardy’s pocket as he faced break point in the first set, but Bley didn’t spot it until after Chardy had netted a forehand.

Chardy argued – unsuccessfully – that he should be granted another chance, and vented his fury at Bley. “It’s a f---ing joke,” he said, “I never see this in my life, I have been playing for 20 years [and] I never see an umpire bad like you. Where are you looking, are you looking at the birds? It’s the biggest mistake of the Australian Open. Not one umpire on the tour would do this mistake, not one."