Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva got negative reactions during and after an awkward moment with a ball girl on Saturday at the U.S. Open.
The incident happened amid her third-round match against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini when Putintseva exhibited a poor attitude toward the young woman as she was losing in a second set, the New York Post reported on Monday.
Video footage shows the moment the ball girl holds up tennis balls for Putintseva who does not react when the young woman tosses them at her. Moments later, the tennis player catches a third ball and boos can be heard coming from the stands:
Social media users were quick to react to the incident, with one person calling Putintseva “Entitled.”
Another user deemed it a “Punk move” while someone else said, “This is what happen when we live in a world where someone who just hits a ball with a rack gets paid more the people who save lives everyday.”
Following the backlash, Putintseva, who is Russian-born, issued an apology and explained what happened, the Telegraph reported on Monday. In her social media post, she said:
I want to apologize to the ball girl for the way I was, when she was giving me balls. Honestly speaking it was not about her. I was really p—– off at myself for not winning the game from the breakpoint and then got empty with my emotions and deep in my thoughts, that I was not even focusing on what’s going on and who gives me the ball. All the ball kids was [sic] doing amazing as always at the Open.
The Post article noted that “Paolini went on to win in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.”
Putintseva reportedly has a “fiery history” on and off the tennis court, according to the Daily Mail.
“Perhaps her biggest on-court controversy came back in 2019, when she fell to defeat in the Australian Open before flipping off the crowd,” the outlet said.
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