Australian tennis player Marc Polman says the chair umpire accepted his apology after he was hit in the face with a ball in frustration during the Shanghai Masters qualifying tournament.
Polmans, world number 140, was immediately disqualified after the incident when he wasted a second match point during a two-hour, 34-minute fight with Italian Stefano Napolitano on Tuesday.
Leading 7-6 (7-3) 6-6 (6-6) he scored a return to the back of the net. As the ball bounced towards him, he crushed it and the ball flew point-blank into the face of British official Ben Anderson.
Anderson appears to have escaped serious injury, with a tournament representative saying he was hit in the cheek and nose and returned to his hotel to rest.
“An update from me – the referee, Ben, accepted my apology for my actions – he knows it was unintentional and I threw the ball at the frame in frustration in the heat of the moment. action,” Polmans wrote on the social media platform X. Wednesday.
Marc Polmans has apologized after punching a referee in the face during a tennis match.
The Australian took to Twitter to express his regret over the ‘hot of the moment’ incident.
“We’re both moving forward. It was a high pressure situation and I should have reacted better.
It was a virtual replay of an incident involving Canadian Denis Shapovalov during a Davis Cup clash against Great Britain in 2017. The referee on that occasion, Arnaud Gabas, found himself with a fractured orbit.
A victory for Polmans, 26, would have secured him a place in the main draw of an ATP 1000 event for the first time. Instead, he will lose all prize money and ranking points accumulated during the tournament. qualification.
Other measures could follow. Nick Kyrgios, referring to one of his own fines, which cost him almost AU$30,000, posted on X: “I’m interested to see how much the fine will be.” All things considered (15,000 pounds) for the bottle shake at Queens.
Polmans was one of seven Australians in the second and final qualifying round, four of whom reached the main draw to join seven other compatriots in the first round.
Qualifying top seed Rinky Hijikata took just 80 minutes to defeat Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock 6-1 6-4, while James Duckworth also claimed a straight sets victory, 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 against fellow Australian James. McCabe.
Polmans angered after failing to convert match point in Shanghai
Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios reacted to the incident, asking how Polmans would be sanctioned
World No. 256 Dane Sweeny beat South Korean Seongchan Hong 6-2 6-1 and world No. 292 Philip Sekulic beat Frenchman Arthur Weber 6-4 6-3.
However, Luke Saville was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin and Li Tu pushed American Aleksandar Kovacevic to three sets, but lost 2-6 7-6 (10-8) 5-7.
Alex de Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, Max Purcell, Chris O’Connell and Aleksandar Vukic all skipped qualifying due to their rankings.
World number 2 Carlos Alcaraz will make his debut in Shanghai later in the week, while 2019 defending champion Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas are also among the participants.
