On Friday night, Camilo Ugo Carabelli left a tennis court in Ecuador without saying a word to anyone. The next day he was able to find plenty of them, and nearly all of them were apologies. The Argentine has issued a lengthy post explaining his disqualification from the Challenger in Guayaquil, in which he exited the court mid-set and walked to the locker room, protesting the condition of the clay. He began with the tournament itself. 

“The last thing I want is to disrespect the Challenger in Guayaquil and its people,” he wrote. “I’ve known everyone since I was 13 years old, and I highlight the enormous effort they put in throughout the entire week to get the courts in the best possible condition despite the rain.” That is important, as Carabelli is a South American who rose through the ranks of the COSAT junior circuit and has been attending these events since his childhood. 

“My intention was never to withdraw from the match, and certainly not in that way. I felt that playing in those conditions was a risk, but at that moment, I didn’t fully grasp the consequences or heed the referee’s warnings,” Carabelli added.  

“My reaction was poor; I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’m not saying this to excuse myself: I was wrong in how I handled the situation, it overwhelmed me, and I made a mistake by walking off the court. I apologize to those affected by my attitude,” he concluded (The statement was written in Spanish and has been translated.)

What he was apologizing for was strange: 49 minutes. Carabelli, the top seed at No. 75 in the world, was playing Brazil’s Joao Lucas Reis da Silva in the quarterfinals. He was serving at 5-4, 15-40 in the first set, and then slipped near the baseline while attempting a backhand slice, which ended in the net to hand over the break. At 5-5, he gathered his things and headed off. 

The chair umpire called after him, “Cami, Cami!” Reis da Silva did not appear to realize straight away that his opponent had gone. The crowd whistled. Carabelli had already made his view plain to the umpire in Spanish, telling him the court was horrible and that it was impossible to play on. Because he had not retired through injury, the supervisor was called, and he was defaulted.

The conditions were not imagined. Heavy rain for two days had wrecked the schedule and brought the clay in a state that the ground staff had been fighting all week. Carabelli was not even the first player to complain. Fellow Argentine Alex Barrena slipped repeatedly during a first-round tiebreak against Gonzalo Bueno and had a tense exchange with chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote, who reportedly told him that if he wanted a fight, he could fight with him. Barrena played on and lost. The difference is that Carabelli did not, and the rulebook does not care much about context.

The price of walking off and what comes next?

Under the ATP rulebook, section 8.04 states that a player who is defaulted loses the prize money and ranking points collected at the event: For quarterfinalists, that’s 12 points and $3,095 withdrawn from their account in Guayaquil. The right to protest conditions in court is not included in the exceptions to that rule. There are more fines and consequences that can be brought upon the Argentine. 

If a player leaves the playing area without the permission of the chair umpire or supervisor, they will be fined up to $3,000 at Challenger level. Failure to complete a match is a fine of up to $5000, immediate disqualification, and may constitute serious misconduct leading to suspension. Officials can also pull a player from other events at the same tournament. So far, the ATP has made no statement other than the default, and his statement is like a man who knows the file is still open. 

Carabelli is 27 and was ranked as high as No. 43 in August 2025, with nine Challenger titles and no ATP Tour trophy. He has been thin in his 2026 season, with a first-round exit in Melbourne, a second-round exit at the clay-court Grand Slam, and has strung together just 15 wins on the ATP Tour, which is why he was chasing points in Ecuador in November. 

This is not his first jolting conclusion of the year. He retired at the Cancun Challenger before the US Open on a 6-2, 5-0 deficit against Moez Echargui, but there it was a different situation. 

Apologies do not restore ranking points, and they do not undo a default. One thing they can do is to make a player closer to the locker room whom he has known since the age of 13. For at least that part, Carabelli has made it easy for Guayaquil.