Jelena Ostapenko grew frustrated at the ASB Classic on Wednesday morning in Auckland, New Zealand, and the Latvian tennis player took out her anger on a helpless ball boy.
#Watch Tempers flare at the @ASB_Classic after Jelena Ostapenko's racket hits a ball boy #ASBClassichttps://t.co/zMoqX2bw24
— Stuff (@NZStuff) January 6, 2016
Though the video doesn’t seem to capture the contact between the racket and ball boy, you can hear in the background as Ostapenko’s opponent, Naomi Broady of Britain, protests to the chair umpire for the racket-thrower’s disqualification.
Broady: “You’ll see on the video. No way it was an accident. She threw the racket and it hit the ball boy.”
Judge: “It was an acciendent
Broady: “Come on! It was accidental? No way it was accidental.”
Broady won the match 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 but did not back down from her assertion that Ostapenko should have been disqualified, according to stuff.co.nz.
“I think it was quite clear that she threw her racket, and it hit a ball kid, which should be strict disqualification. … I think on the replay it’s quite clear it didn’t slip from her hand.”
Broady said after the match that Ostapenko called her out afterward for bad behavior and described the players as having had a “confrontation.”
Broady’s win advanced her to the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic.
