Federer dismisses reporter's question, nets Kyrgios' praise

Roger Federer wasn't having it on court, and then he wasn't having it in the press room.

Irritated by a point penalty—his second code violation in the match—assessed to him by the chair umpire during a Shanghai Masters quarterfinal match against Alexander Zverev, Federer jawed with the umpire for a few minutes.

"Why didn't you tell me that that was too much for you?" Federer said in the midst of the spat.

It all revolved around a ball that Federer rather lackadaisacally tapped out of the confines of the court after missing a backhand volley.

Federer ultimately dropped the three-set affair to Zverev, despite saving multiple match points to win the second set in a tiebreak.

Afterward, the Swiss was quite fed up with a pressroom questioner who drummed up the on-court exchange. Asked why he was upset with the umpire's decision, Federer paused for a couple seconds and shot back, in part, "So you can write on Twitter, you mean? ... Next question."

A gleeful Nick Kyrgios himself took to Twitter about the post-match presser, terming Federer an "absolute legend" for shutting down the journalist over a straightforward, logical question.

It was truly a "softball" query lobbed to Federer, much like the ball he basically plopped outside the court in the match. But Federer was obviously still quite Raw-ger about it—one of a few downright cranky exchanges during the week.