Romanian tennis player Irina-Camelia Begu bounced her racquet into the crowd narrowly missing a child who was brought to tears
The world number 63 crashed her racquet into the court after losing serve in the third set of her French Open contest.
The racquet flew off the court landing in the crowd, scaring a young child who broke out into audible sobs.
Officials halted the match and handed Begu a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Begu eventually went on to win the match, defeating katerina Alexandrova 6-4 in the decisive third set.
The incident has raised eyebrows in the tennis community, with many believing she should have been disqualified for the act, and is being compared to an incident that saw Novak Djokovic disqualified from the 2020 U.S Open for striking a ball at a line judge.
A contrite Begu comforted the young boy and posed for photos with him following the contest.
She expressed regret for the incident saying “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.”
Bryan Hoadley contributed to this post
