Yulia Putintseva’s rude exchange with a US Open ball girl drudged up some painful memories for a London Times columnist who spent her teenage years chasing down fluorescent felt balls for ungrateful tennis stars.
‘Every ball girl and boy knows how easy it is to become a target for a player’s frustration,’ wrote former Queen’s Club tournament ball girl-turned-author and journalist, Claire Cohen.
Such was the case with Putintseva, who became the talk of the US Open after she appeared to humiliate a ball girl during her third-round loss on Saturday.
The incident began with the exhausted 29-year-old Kazakh star waiting for the ball girl to relay three balls to her. But instead of mustering the energy to receive the first two offerings, the dismissive Putintseva allowed them to fall to her side. It was only on the ball girl’s third attempt that Putintseva put in the effort to make the reception.
Putintseva has since issued an apology, but not until after she was booed by the US Open crowd – something that sent ‘a wave of recognition [pulsing] through’ Cohen.
London Times columnist and former ball girl Claire Cohen is pictured with Andy Murray
Yulia Putintseva ignored the ball girl’s attempts to throw the balls towards her, letting the first one hit her torso (left) while the second one bounced off her feet and rolled away (right)
Putintseva, 29, was later slammed for her ‘terrible behavior’ towards the ball girl
The columnist remembered being hit by a serve from Lleyton Hewitt, who neglected to acknowledge the incident in any way.
She also referred to a defeated ‘Antipodean’ player (someone from Australia or New Zealand), who shouted ‘what are you lot staring at?’ after coming across a 14-year-old Cohen and her friends on his way off the court.
Cohen then remembered some other well-known incidents, like when Tim Henman was disqualified at Wimbledon in 1995 after accidentally hitting a ball that smacked into a ball girl’s ear. Henman later offered a public apology at a photo-op at Wimbledon.
Novak Djokovic apologized in 2015 when he yelled at a Wimbledon ball girl, and just this year Russia’s Pavel Kotov nearly hit a ball girl when he rocketed a ball off the back fence in frustration. Fortunately, the ball girl was not hurt.
Greg Rusedski gives his racquet to a ball boy in his match against Goran Ivanisevic in 2001
A ball girl with Djokovic, who once apologized for his anger to another ball girl at Wimbledon
There have also been lighter moments, like when Goran Ivanisevic handed his racket off to a ball girl, who went on to play a point against Australia’s Mark Philippoussis. Greg Rusedski had a similar moment against Ivanisevic at Wimbledon in 2001.
Putintseva has since apologized for her ‘terrible behavior’ towards a ball girl at the US Open.
In a message on social media, she wrote: ‘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 pissed at myself by 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 were doing amazing as always at the open.’
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