Pavel Kotov lost his nerve in his opening round match, but eventually pulled out the win.
Tennis The Australian Open kicked off properly on Sunday. The first small-scale commotion was also immediately seen.
Russian Pavel Kotov faced France in the opening round of Arthur Rinderknech, and the match stretched to a fifth set. In the end, Kotov won the match 7–5, 6–1, 6–7, 6–7, 6–3. However, Kotov did not emerge as the winner without a bad style mistake.
After losing one point, Kotov's nerve control, ranked 64th in the world, failed badly.
He took the ball and hit it full force into the back wall. The ball girl who was in the corner of the field was scared by Kotov's emotional outburst and reflexively turned away from Kotov.
The ball hit by Kotov didn't quite hit the girl, but the Russian player's behavior was still condemned on social media.
“Little girl, he shouldn't have to put up with that kind of shit. I hope he (Kotov) gets fined,” commented one who saw the video.
“As the parent of a ball kid, I think it's disgusting that he wasn't rejected from the Australian Open. The ball boys and girls are volunteers and should not be afraid or feel threatened,” another wrote.
“He should have been disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior. What if the ball had hit the girl?”
If the ball had hit the girl, Kotov would almost certainly have been disqualified. World number one Novak Djokovic for example, was disqualified at the 2020 US Open after he hit the linesman with the ball.
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