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Tennis player defaulted after hitting umpire in face with ball, giving him a black eye
tennis

Tennis player defaulted after hitting umpire in face with ball, giving him a black eye

Published Feb. 6, 2017 11:44 a.m. ET

In a familiar scene that finally took the wrong turn the tennis world had been dreading, a ball swatted in frustration by a struggling tennis player bulleted straight to the face of the chair umpire instead of harmlessly bouncing elsewhere, leaving the official with a black eye, the player defaulted and the tennis world in desperate need of reevaluating the expression of on-court discontent.

It all happened in a Davis Cup tie when 17-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov hit an unforced error to hand opponent Kyle Edmund a break. Annoyed, Shapovalov then took an extra ball from his pocket and slapped it away, as hundreds of players have done over the years. This time though, the ball didn't flutter away to some safe part of the court. It went straight at the chair umpire's eye.

https://twitter.com/i_am_peterpan_/status/828371386536189960

The contact immediately disqualified Shapovalov. Umpire Arnaud Gabas immediately had swelling and bruising under his eye and was eventually taken to an Ottawa hospital for evaluation. Before that happened, Shapovalov went over to check on Gabas and appeared distraught.

The teenager, pegged as Canada's next tennis star, issued a heartfelt apology on Monday.


"Last night at my Davis Cup match I did something very unprofessional and inexcusable. [...] There is no excuse for this behavior and I take full responsibility for my action. I'm very sorry to Mr. Gabas to whom I apologised in person. [...] I feel ashamed of my unprofessional behavior and will accept any consequences of my actions."



Shapovalov needs a small suspension, not because he did it on purpose but because the ITF, ATP and WTA need to discourage this type of behavior. Think of how a kid with a black eye would play at Wimbledon or a chair umpire with a bloody nose at the U.S. Open? Tennis can market itself on the fact that it's a sport for both the athlete and the thinker. Beating up chair umpires isn't quite the look it's going for.

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