Yulia Putintseva’s rude exchange with a US Open ball girl brought back painful memories for a London Times columnist who spent her teenage years chasing 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 the former Queen’s Club tournament ball girl, now an author and journalist, Claire Cohen.
That was also the case for Putintseva, who became the talk of the town at the US Open after appearing 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 pass her three balls. But instead of mustering the energy to receive the first two offerings, the dismissive Putintseva let them fall to her side. It wasn’t until the ball girl’s third attempt that Putintseva even bothered to make the reception.
Putinseva has since apologized, but only after she was booed by the US Open crowd – something that caused “a wave of recognition” [pulsing] via 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, causing the first ball to hit her torso (left), while the second bounced off her feet and rolled away (right).
Poeintseva, 29, was later criticised for her ‘appalling behaviour’ towards the ball girl
The columnist recalls being hit by a serve from Lleyton Hewitt, who made no mention of the incident.
She also referred to a defeated ‘Antipodean’ (someone from Australia or New Zealand) player who shouted ‘What are you staring at?’ after encountering 14-year-old Cohen and her friends as they walked off the court.
Cohen recalled a few other famous incidents, such as when Tim Henman was disqualified from Wimbledon in 1995 after accidentally hitting a ball into a ball girl’s ear. Henman later publicly apologized during a photo op at Wimbledon.
Novak Djokovic apologized in 2015 after yelling at a Wimbledon ball girl, and this year, Russia’s Pavel Kotov nearly hit a ball girl when he shot a ball off the fence in frustration. Fortunately, the ball girl was not injured.
Greg Rusedski hands his racket to a ball boy during his match against Goran Ivanisevic in 2001
A ball girl with Djokovic, who once apologized for his anger towards another ball girl at Wimbledon
There have been lighter moments, too, such as when Goran Ivanisevic handed his racket to a ball girl, who then played a point against Australian Mark Philippoussis. Greg Rusedski had a similar moment against Ivanisevic at Wimbledon in 2001.
Putintseva has since apologized for her “appalling behavior” toward a ball girl at the US Open.
In a social media post, she wrote: ‘I want to apologize to the ball girl for the way I behaved when she gave me balls.
‘Honestly, it wasn’t about her. I was really pissed off at myself for not winning the match from break point and then I was empty of my emotions and deep in my thoughts, that I didn’t even concentrate on what was going on and who gave me the ball…
‘As always all the ball boys did a great job at the open day.’
