KUALA LUMPUR: National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky stole the limelight during his charges, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah's 111-minute epic battle with Japan's Sayaka Hirota-Yuki Fukushima when he got into a spat with a tournament referee yesterday.
When Pearly-Thinaah trailed their Japanese opponents 12-11 during the tightly-contested rubber game, Rexy was left fuming with the umpire's decision to stop the play when the two pairs were trading blows because the Japanese coach was giving instructions to their players.
He then confronted the referee and started protesting angrily.
After the match, Rexy shed light on what had transpired.
It turned out that Rexy was already unhappy with the umpire after the latter warned Thinaah for throwing her racquet on the floor to celebrate the crucial point she and Pearly won to make it 20-19 in the second game.
"Firstly, I questioned the referee about why Thinaah has been served a warning. In my point of view, that wasn't a misconduct at all. Thinaah didn't throw the racket to show her tantrum. The umpire has gotten the decision wrong, I told the referee," said Rexy.
"When the umpire stopped the rally during the second game, that was the last straw for me. The referee insisted that the Japanese coach had breached the regulation for communicating with his players, but that shouldn't have happened because the rally was so intense with both pairs fighting their hearts out for the point.
"I have never experienced anything like that as a player. But for me, that's unacceptable."