Tommy Paul came close to disaster in his third round against Carlos Alcaraz in Cincinnati. The American completely unpinned on a warm-up service and saw his ball propelled at around 200 km / h violently hit the chair.
The 16th player in the world immediately went to apologize. “I’m sorry. It was an accident,” explained the player. “It’s okay, I didn’t see it,” replied the referee who was looking away when the small yellow ball hit his chair, passing a few centimeters from his head.
“I’m really sorry,” insisted the New Jersey player when he found the baseline, aware of having escaped a disqualification. Touching a referee or a ball boy is sanctioned by exclusion from the court. But Paul’s blow, as powerful as it was, was by no means intentional.
In 2020, Novak Djokovic was kicked out of the US Open after hitting a linesman in the throat with a ball that collapsed instantly. The Serb had not hit the ball intentionally here too, but the tournament management had applied the rules to the letter. A similar scene occurred during the last Roland-Garros. The pair of doubles Aldila Sutjiadi – Miyu Kato had been disqualified when the latter had involuntarily thrown a ball in the head of a collector.
