In a moment of frustration, Australian tennis player Marc Polmans smashed a ball into the umpire’s face while competing in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers. This resulted in instant disqualification for Polmans, who used to be only a point absent from victory.
Polmans, ranked No. 140 on the planet, used to be playing against Italy’s Stefano Napolitano on Monday, and he managed to win a competitive first set, 7-6 (3). The second one set used to be also a near one and had gone into a tiebreak. Polmans had the lead but failed to transform the match point.
The 26-year-old missing his mood and appeared to be trying to hit the ball out of the court in anger. Then again, the ball went straight into umpire Ben Anderson’s face.
Fortunately, The Times reported that a tournament spokesperson said Anderson used to be “OK when he left the stadium.”
Although Polmans had not hit him, the ATP rules state that players aren’t allowed to hit tennis balls out of anger.
“Players shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a tennis ball while on the grounds of the tournament site aside from in the fair pursuit of a point right through a match (including warm-up),” the ATP rules read.
Polmans’ fellow Australian, Nick Kyrgios, reacted to the incident on social media. Kyrgios has seen his reasonable share of fines because of “unsportsmanlike conduct,” including a $14,000 fine for smashing two rackets right through the 2022 US Open.
“Interested to see what the fine will be all things regarded as (15 thousand pounds) for the bottle shake at queens,” Kyrgios wrote.
Monday’s accident used to be infrequent, but it has happened before with other players. Probably the most notorious occurrences used to be when 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic used to be disqualified from the 2020 US Open after by chance hitting a line pass judgement on. Djokovic used to be stripped of the $250,000 in prize money he had earned for making it to the Round of 16, and he used to be also hit with a $10,000 fine.