By Chris Umpierre

Daily Bruin Staff

First Gustavo Kuerten, then Andre Agassi, and now Marcelo Rios. All have made early exits from the once star-studded Mercedes-Benz Cup.

Before a near-capacity crowd at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Wednesday, No. 29 Rios was ejected in his first-round match against Goichi Motomura for verbal abuse directed at chair umpire Tony Nimmons.

Under ATP Tour policy, Rios will forfeit his prize money and lose his hotel accommodations. Tour supervisor Gayle Bradshaw said the Chilean also faces “a few thousand” dollar fine.

The altercation began in the first set with the score 5-3 as Motomura got ready to serve. Rios raised his hand to stop the match, but Nimmons did not see the hand movement and Motomura registered an ace.

Rios immediately walked over to the chair umpire and it was during that discussion that Nimmons said Rios told him what Bradshaw called “the magic words.”

Rios said, however, that he did not direct his expletive toward Nimmons.

“I go to talk to him and he says I said something bad,” said Rios, who threw his racquet in disgust after his ejection. “I didn’t say it to him, I said it to me.

“I said stop because I wasn’t ready,” he added about raising his hand as Motomura was serving. “Some people (in the stands) were moving. (Nimmons) said, ‘No there was nobody moving.’ I said, ‘How can you see if they were behind your back?’”

Bradshaw walked onto the court in the middle of the discussion and was told by Nimmons that Rios directed an expletive at him.

“I went back to the chair umpire at least three times and said, ‘Are you 100 percent sure that he was looking at you and that’s what he said? And he said ‘Yes,’” Bradshaw said.

“There was a disagreement on what was said, but the umpire told me he was 100 percent sure,” he added.

Bradshaw asked Rios if he said the words but the Tour supervisor said Rios did not admit to all of the words.

“There’s a difference between adding ‘you’ at the end, which he said he did not,” Bradshaw said.

Earlier this year, the Tour did away with the three-step warning system where an arguing player is warned and then deducted one game and then two games. The Tour kept the immediate ejection policy.

In the ensuing press conference, Rios was asked if he was sorry.

“I didn’t say it to him, so I’m not sorry,” he said.

Rios, who was No. 1 last year and is holder of 16 ATP titles, said his ejection is typical of the Tour’s increasingly strong reactions.

“I think this sport is getting too strict,” he said. “We are not doing anything bad. We are not killing anybody.”

Bradshaw said this is the part of his job he does not enjoy.

“This is the worst,” said Bradshaw, who pointed out that Agassi had a similar incident in Indianapolis a couple of years ago.

“Everybody loses in this situation,” he added. “We have a full stadium that came out to see Marcelo. The tournament has unfortunately lost a few of its top names to injuries and other circumstances.”

Meanwhile, a very happy Motomura ran back to the locker room after the match to cancel a plane flight he had reserved for the following day.

“Just in case,” Motomura said about the flight he had scheduled for Thursday. “There’s a very small chance to win against (Rios).”

Before the heated discussion, Motomura – ranked No. 230 in the world – was playing well against the heavily favored Rios.

After winning his opening serve, Japan’s No. 1 player broke Rios and won his next serve to take a commanding 3-0 lead.

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In Wednesday’s last match, 1996 Mercedes-Benz Cup champion Michael Chang beat Kevin Ullyett 6-1, 6-3.

Chang will play the No. 5 seeded Wayne Ferreira in the quarterfinals on Thursday.