The incident occured when Irina-Camelia-Begu beat Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round of the French Open
Irina-Camelia Begu threw a racket on the court which bounced off and hit a child during her second round match against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova at the Roland Garros. Begu received a code violation warning but admitted she was fortunate not to have been defaulted by the authorities.
Speaking on the incident after the match, Begu said – “It’s an embarrassing moment for me, so I don’t want to talk too much about it. I just want to apologise.” “My whole career, I didn’t do something like this, and I feel really bad and sorry. So I’m just going to say again, sorry for the incident and it was just an embarrassing moment for me”, she further added.
The Grand Slam supervisor was called on to the court after the incident and he spoke with the parents who accompanied the child. The parents confirmed that the child was fine and not injured.
Begu went on to win the match and after the match, checked on the child and posed for pictures with him.
Incidents of misconduct on court are rapidly increasing in Tennis
The tennis community has witnessed similar incidents recently – Alexander Zverev hit a chair umpire’s stand repeatedly at the Acapulco Open, Nick Kyrgios almost hit a ball boy after smashing a racquet on the court at the Indian Wells Masters while Jenson Brooksby hit a ball boy with his racquet at the Miami Open.
Although the incidents were mostly similar in nature, the end verdicts are completely different from each other.
At the Indian Wells Masters, Kyrgios smashed the racquet against the ground which bounced off and almost hit a ball boy who ducked in time. Later on, the Australian was fined US $25,000.
Zverev was angered by an umpiring call that didn’t go in his favor at the Mexican Open. He started hurling abuses at the chair umpire in rage and hit his sitting stand multiple times with his racquet. Soon after the match, the tournament authorities disqualified him from the tournament on grounds of misconduct.
At the Miami Open, Jenson Brooksby threw his racquet in frustration and it bounced up to hit a ball boy who was standing by the scoreboard at the back of the court. Brooksby was handed a point penalty but was allowed to continue the match.
This inconsistency in decision-making is eye catching and certainly leaves a lot of room for improvement – if the governing authorities plan to reduces instances of misconduct on court!
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