SAN CLEMENTE, CA - Down 8-11, 1-4 in game two to Ammar Wazir, Julian Arnold became annoyed by a net cord hit by Wazir.

After working the score back to 4-4, Arnold put a ball in the top of the net and said in disgust, “Where‘s my f***ing net cord, Jesus Christ.”

He received a technical warning from the referee.

Anrold: “Is that one?”

Referee: “Yes, that’s one”

After losing the next couple points to take the score to 4-6, Arnold’s ball hit the net cord and popped up, leaving it high for Wazir to finish.

Arnold: “There’s my net cord. F***ing sitter for him… God damn it.”

Referee: “Technical warning, loss of a point.”

Arnold: “What? No one can hear me.”

Referee: “I can hear you. That’s the loss of a point.”

Arnold: “No no no, I’m talking to myself, you’re right here two feet away from me. If you were a tennis umpire, you wouldn’t be able to hear me. Come on, this is a close match and you’re going to do that?”

Referee: “I said no swearing, that’s the second time I’ve heard it.”

Arnold: “This is a joke. You want everyone to be robots out here, the sport’s going to die. I want another ref.”

Referee: “You want me to call the head ref?”

Arnold: “No, I want you to do the right thing and not call a point penalty when we’re in a great match. Nothing happened… Just because I’m a verbal player doesn’t mean you have to fault me… Gotta be saints out here… What is the head ref going to do? He didn’t see it.”

Arnold then appealed to the crowd: “Anyone else out here offended?”

A few remarks can be heard from the crowd:

“He heard it, though.”

“I was [offended], a little.”

“It wasn’t bad.”

The players began the match once more, with a new score of 3-6 after the loss of a point for Arnold.

At 3-8, Arnold took a timeout and addressed the referee again:

“Poor call, ref. No reason for you to influence the match… So ridiculous. You know kids say a lot worse on Instagram.”

Arnold went on to lose game two 5-11. From the bench after the match, Arnold spoke to the referee again, clearly still upset by the call:

“Literally middle of the game. Dead even. Decided to completely change the tide.”

What do you think of the point deduction? Should profanity be allowed? Let us know by tagging @pickleballdotcom or commenting on our social media post detailing this exchange.

Rewatch the match here on PPA Showcase Court #1