“Terrible behavior towards the ball girl!” Action at US Open causes outcry

The 26-year-old Putintseva, seeded No. 30, played against the favored Italian Jasmine Paolini in the round of 16 on Saturday and ended up losing 3:6 and 4:6. A scene involving a ball girl caused a stir and quickly made the rounds on the Internet.

Putintseva can be seen standing behind the baseline, waiting for balls for her next serve. When the ball girl received the balls she needed, she threw the first ball to the player a few meters away when asked to do so. However, the player did not react and let the ball bounce off her and roll away, seemingly apathetic. She then had the next ball thrown to her, but again made no attempt to catch it. Only when the audience became restless and the first boos could be heard did Putintseva catch the third and final ball thrown to her by the ball girl.

There was a lot of criticism online, with many accusing Putintseva of lacking respect and arrogance towards the ball girl. “Who did Putintseva think she was?” wrote Boris Becker on X. Enraged: “Terrible behaviour towards the ball girl!!!” The well-known tennis coach Brad Gilbert spoke of a “straight red card”.

One day later, the player apologized for her behavior via Instagram: “Honestly, it wasn’t about that.” [das Ballmädchen]. I was really angry with myself for not winning the game despite having a break point and was so deep in thought that I didn’t even pay attention to what was happening and who was giving me the ball. Open, doing a “great” job as always.