Another day, another umpire going rogue at the U.S. Open, a perennially great event that has suffered through an administrative heat stroke through the opening two rounds.

Tuesday was amateurish enough, when Christian Rask wildly overstepped his bounds by assessing a nonexistent code violation to Alize Cornet for briefly exposing her sports bra while hurriedly changing her shirt following a second-set heat break during her opening-round defeat to Johanna Larsson. (The violation was rescinded with accompanying apology by the USTA the following day.)

But Thursday, well, Thursday crossed the line into Mickey Mouse territory when Mohamed Lahyani, a well-respected official with more than a quarter of a century of experience, climbed down from his chair to offer counsel to Nick Kyrgios during a second-set break when the mercurial Aussie was typically laggard, down 4-6, 0-3 to Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

It was stunning. Lahyani urged Kyrgios, who has a history of insulting paying customers across the globe by walking away from matches, to compete at a higher level and “do better.” Presumably the umpire’s heart was in the right place in articulating his concern for the integrity of the sport. But his head was another matter, off in never-never land.

Imagine the now-retired NFL referee Ed Hochuli joining a 2016 or 2017 Giants huddle in order to encourage Odell Beckham Jr. to stop with the antics and focus on hauling in Eli Manning’s passes. That is what this was on Court 17, even as the Open attempted to spin things its way by claiming in a statement that Lahyani — who was not made available to the press — had acted out of concern for Kyrgios’ health.

Nonsense.

Once again, a cover-up compounding the crime.

An excuse offered when there was no excuse.

“It’s not the umpire’s role to go down from the chair,” said Roger Federer, who advanced to a Round 3 meeting with Kyrgios with a straight sets victory on Ashe over Benoit Paire. “But I get what he was trying to do. [Kyrgios] behaves the way he behaves. You as an umpire take a decision on the chair, do you like it or [not]. But you don’t go down and speak like that, in my opinion.

“I don’t know what he said. I don’t care what he said. It was not just about, ‘How are you feeling? Oh, I’m not feeling so well.’ Go back up to the chair. He was there for too long. It’s a conversation. Conversations can change your mindset. It can be a physio[logist], a doctor, an umpire, for that matter.”

Kyrgios, who broke Herbert at 4-5 before winning the set in a tiebreak en route to a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-0 victory, claimed he barely heard the umpire’s words. He pooh-pooed the possibility that the chat had an impact on the match. He suggested these things happen all the time.

Of course, they do not.

The Aussie ridiculed the notion that Lahyani had acted as a coach, mocking the umpire as, “Obviously an unbelievable tennis player … you know he’s achieved a lot in his tennis career … Mohamed, he had a big one.”

The Grandstand was jammed during the first set. In sweltering heat, fans stood in long lines that snaked around the structure for a chance to see the colorful 23-year-old, 30th seed. When Lahyani climbed down from his chair to chat with Kyrgios, there were rows of empty seats and no wait time. Perhaps the umpire was concerned that the fans would walk away from the match the same way Kyrgios himself had after two sets at Wimbledon in 2017 against this very same Frenchman.

“I don’t know what to think. You never know what would have happened if Mohamed didn’t go down off the chair and started talking to him. For sure from that point, something changed,” Herbert said. “He doesn’t need to go down. He doesn’t need to say the words he said on video. I think this was not his job. I don’t think he’s a coach. He’s an umpire and he should stay on his chair for that.”

Herbert later issued a statement in which he decried the USTA excuse-making as “clearly taking us for fools.”

The Open has been scrambling all week to find its footing. The oppressive heat and humidity created the need to create unprecedented heat rules on the men’s side. There was the incident with Cornet. After losing Wednesday in the second round to Fernando Verdasco, Andy Murray charged that his opponent violated the heat rules by consulting with his coach during the 10-minute break.

And now this.

A tournament with a tradition of excellence has slipped on a banana peel, and more than once. Enough is enough. Tennis, please, the rest of the way.

Just tennis.