Tennis star Mats Rosenkranz found himself on the wrong end of the rulebook after his very brief shower cost him a win at the Crete Challenger IV in Greece, the latest news regarding the sport’s rules.

There are three Challenger Tour events being played in Europe at present, with Bulgaria and Germany hosting the two other tournaments alongside Greece. Rosenkranz was competing in Hersonissos and faced off against Italy’s Pietro Orlando Fellin in the second round.

After the first set, which Rosenkranz won 7-5, the German star went to take a shower before returning to court to continue the match. Upon his return, Rosenkranz was told he had been disqualified from the event because of his actions.

Rosenkranz claimed that the umpire did not reiterate to him that taking a shower was barred. “I only took a ten-second shower,” he said, according to the Tennis Gazette.

Despite Rosenkranz”s protests, the 26-year-old was eliminated from the tournament, with Fellin moving on even though he lost the first set.

Players are not allowed to take a shower during regular matches as a way to deter doping during said matches, per the Tennis Gazette. The only time a player can take a shower are during best-of-five-set Grand Slam ties.

Fans on social media were left scratching their heads regarding numerous aspects of the story, including how Rosenkranz failed to know that was a rule and why the star even wanted to take such a short shower in the first place. As more fans looked into the incident, they came to the conclusion it had only happened once before in recent years.

In 2022, Nicolas Moreno de Alboran was disqualified for the same offense. Taking on Federico Delbonis at a Challenger Tour event in Seville, de Alboran took a shower to rinse sand off his clothes before the third set. However, Delbonis told officials that de Alboran took a shower and was disqualified.

After the incident, de Alboran took to social media to explain his situation and his dissatisfaction with the outcome.

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“During the second set, I fell over 3/4 times. On one of them, sand got inside my underwear. I had to play like that for 30 minutes, and it was giving me a rash that started bleeding after a while. When I won the second set, I went to the toilet to change,” he posted at the time, [h/t The Tennis Gazette].

“When I saw that I couldn’t get the sand off with the towel since I was sweating so much. I decided to use the shower handle to only rinse the sand off. My opponent told the umpire that came to the bathroom with us that I had taken a shower (which you are not allowed to do). The tournament referee then proceeded to default me from the tournament. On top of that, I will not receive the points or prize money from the tournament, and will have to pay for my hotel room for the days that I was playing in the tournament.“

Tennis rules have been at the forefront lately, with Emma Raducanu left fuming after a child distracted her during her matchup with Aryna Sabalenka.