Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu has apologised after bouncing her racquet into a French Open crowd where it hit a child.
The incident happened during her second round match against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova at Roland Garros.
Begu, 31, threw her racquet into the ground in the second set where it bounced up and struck the child.
“It’s an embarrassing moment for me, so I don’t want to talk too much about it. I just want to apologise,” she said.
“My whole career, I didn’t do something like this, and I feel really bad and sorry. So I’m just going to say again, sorry for the incident and it was just an embarrassing moment for me.”
Begu, who went on to win 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-4, checked on the child after the match and posed for pictures with him.
Later, a statement from tournament referee Remy Azemar, emailed by the French tennis federation, said the racket “brushed a young spectator” who “turned out to be OK”.
“The Grand Slam supervisor spoke with the parents who were with the child. The parents confirmed that the child was fine and not injured,” the statement added.
Begu received a warning but admitted she was fortunate not to have been defaulted.
“It was a difficult moment. You hit the clay with the racquet, but you never expect to fly that much,” she added.
Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open in 2020 when he angrily hit at a ball which struck a line judge.
