MY ACCOUNT
Ekaterina Alexandrova said the “rules were against” her after she lost to Irina-Camelia Begu at the French Open, where her Romanian opponent accidentally hit a child in the crowd with her racket.
The incident occurred in the third set of the second round match on Thursday, with Begu slamming her racket in frustration after a lost point, inadvertently bouncing it off the court’s surface and into the crowd, where it struck the youngster.
Begu has since apologised, calling it “embarrassing”.
There was a short break in play as officials and supervisors checked on the crying child, before ultimately deciding to give Begu a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Once play resumed, Begu immediately broke Alexandrova’s serve, and won six of the next eight games to seal a 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-4 victory.
In an Instagram post after her loss, Alexandrova expressed her disappointment, suggesting the rules had been against her.
“So disappointed to leave [Roland Garros] like that, I was trying to do my best, but seems like the rules were against me today,” she wrote. “This shouldn’t be happening.
“I hope after today’s match rules will be improved for everyone’s safety. We are responsible for our racket.”
Speaking to the media after her win, Begu was apologetic for her actions.
“Well, it’s an embarrassing moment for me. I just want to apologise,” she said. “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, yeah, it was just an embarrassing moment for me.
She added: “It was a difficult moment because I didn’t want to hit that racket, you know.
“You hit the clay with the racket, but you never expect [it] to fly that much.
“It was, as I said, embarrassing moment for me, and I just want to end it and not talk about it.”
