O Stefanos Tsitsipas made a terrific appearance against the Jiri Lehetskacelebrating with a 3-0 set the qualification to the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
However, the Greek tennis player could have been kicked out of the tournament in a moment of irritation during the third set. Specifically, an easy point of it Lehetska angered Tsitsipas, who hit the ball hard against the wall behind the baseline, where a ball boy was!
If Stefanos had succeeded the ball boy, he probably would have been kicked out of the event, as he had been Novak Djokovic at the 2020 US Open, when the Serb had then hit the linesman to his annoyance.
However, Tsitsipas explained the scene at the press conference: “I saw the ball kid when the ball came back. I’m a professional tennis player, obviously I wasn’t marking the kid. I saw the wall, I sent her towards the wall. The child, in the eyes, was quite far from me. I’d have to be completely off the mark to hit it. It sure isn’t cool to hit the ball against the wall either. I don’t think I hit her that hard, but it doesn’t matter. Of course I’m not happy, I shouldn’t have done it. It was part of the moment, my hitting was bad and there was a bit of irritation. I kept playing after that, I didn’t let it affect me.”
Whoa… ?? Stefanos Tsitsipas came THIS close to hitting a ball kid out of frustration in an incident eerily reminiscent of Novak Djokovic’s controversial US Open default. ??
??? #AusOpen LIVE | https://t.co/80XjQpwd6J#9WWOS #Tennis pic.twitter.com/yxmOy1xacs
— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) January 24, 2023
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