French Open ace makes young fan cry bouncing racket into crowd but avoids disqualification | Tennis | Sport
Irina-Camelia Begu was responsible for making a young fan cry when she bounced her racket into the crowd during her second-round victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova on Thursday. Begu was leading by two games in the third set of the match when she opted to show her frustration by throwing her racket, which ricocheted off her rest area and into the stands before a supervisor was called in the wake of the incident.
Begu’s racket did not appear to hit anybody in the crowd but her outburst still managed to reduce a young fan to tears, presumably due to shock. The supporter in question was quickly attended to by the umpire as the match was briefly paused to allow the situation to be dealt with.
Although many similar incidents have seen players defaulted in previous instances, Begu was only given a warning by the officials in attendance and was allowed to continue playing. The leniency of her punishment appeared to anger Alexandrova, who was ultimately knocked out of the French Open after throwing away her first-set lead by losing in each of the final two sets.
Begu did appear to be immediately remorseful after realising that her racket had bounced into the crowd and into the vicinity of a young supporter. She was spotted hugging and consoling the fan after the end of the match as she apologised for her actions before making her way off the court.
A number of fans on social media questioned why Begu was not disqualified for throwing her racket when a number of other players have been kicked out of tournaments for similar on-court outbursts over the last few years. Alexander Zverev was defaulted from this year’s Mexican Open for repeatedly smashing his racket on the ground in front of the umpire back in February, while Novak Djokovic was hit with the same punishment after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball at the US Open two years ago.
Nick Kyrgios has also been faced with controversy for slamming his racket to the ground over the last few months, with the divisive Aussie star narrowly missing a ball kid at Indian Wells earlier this year. Racket-smashing tantrums have long been accepted as part of the game but it seems as though attitudes have firmed up with regards to the issue in recent years due to the threat of causing injury to those in the immediate vicinity.
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