Dave Hughes reveals why he almost got into a fistfight with a fan who called him HITLER at Wimbledon
The comedian and his teenage son Rafferty were taking in Jordan Thompson's match at one of the All England Club's outer courts on Wednesday night, Australian time, when the trouble kicked off.
'Three rows of seating on Court 15, within metres of the players, tense fifth set, and this English bloke would not stop loudly talking to his friend as if he was down at his local boozer,' Hughes wrote on Instagram.
'When I eventually told him to pipe down, he was livid, real 'how dare you tell me what to do you Aussie scum' vibe.
'He called me 'Little Hitler'. But after a long, very tense back and forth, he zipped it and everyone was happy, except him.'
The 54-year-old elaborated on the incident in a video featuring his son.
'There was this English bloke behind us, just would not shut up, right through the match,' he said.
'Eventually I said, can you just be quiet ... everyone around us was happy that I did it.
'What is it with entitled English wankers?'
Hughes and his son got a real treat when they watched Thompson's match - apart from the English fan.
The Aussie came into Wimbledon with a large box of painkillers, a thick black brace for his back, and a crazy dream that somehow he would defy his badly injured body long enough to make an impact at the tournament he loves so much.
Two titanic five-set matches later, the hirsute Sydneysider is still standing on the green lawns of SW19, just.
With Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt, the last Australian man to win at Wimbledon, watching on, Thompson beat Benjamin Bonzi 7-5 6-7 (2-7) 4-6 6-2 6-4 in nine minutes shy of four hours.
After Bonzi hit a return into the net on the second match point, Thompson let out a primal scream into the cool evening sky, smiled a grin as wide as Sydney Harbour, and pointed to his heart.
'Everyone the whole week has just told me to show some ticker, so I just pointed to it and said, that's some f***ing ticker,' said Thompson, adding the gesture was aimed at Hewitt, who often used the phrase himself and had been demanding it from Thompson.
After his first-round defeat of Vit Kopriva, when he came from two sets down, Thompson looked shattered, said he was not enjoying himself, and wondered aloud if he would even be able to start Wednesday's match.
He's now proud of himself, but still not enjoying it.
'The only thing that brought me a smile is the win and the fact that I didn't have to be out there anymore because it was so tough,' Thompson said.
'It's frustrating. There's movements I can't do, but the competitive juices are keeping me going. It's not just the back, it's everything. I'm super stiff. I'm not practising, but I keep moving and I'm having lots of treatment, yoga, core.'
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