Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva has apologised for her ‘terrible behaviour’ towards a ball girl at the US Open. The 29-year-old was involved in an ugly moment during her third-round defeat to Italian Jasmine Paolini, which led to her being heavily booed by the crowd at Flushing Meadows, and criticised by the likes of Boris Becker and Piers Morgan.
Footage showed two balls being thrown towards Putintseva ahead of her next serve, only for the player to ignore them and stare back at the girl without moving her position.
It left the youngster in an awkward position, before Putintseva caught the third ball before resuming the match when she was down 4-2 in the second set.
In a message on social media, she wrote: ‘I want to apologize to the ball girl for the way I was, when she was giving me balls.’
The first ball that the young girl attempted to pass to Putintseva was ignored by the Kazakhstan player who instead let it hit her torso and bounce away.
Her second attempt at throwing the ball to the player was again ignored as it bounced off Putintseva’s feet – and the player turned her head to watch it roll away from her.
That was when loud boos were directed at Putintseva, who caught the third ball without acknowledging the ball girl.
Putintseva then looked to grab one of the balls which she previously ignored, as the ball girl had her arms stretched out wide.
There was no acknowledgement towards the ball girl as Putintseva returned to the baseline, and footage showed the ball girl returning to her station with a wry smile and shaking her head at what just happened.
Credit: dailymail.co.uk
