PARIS — Turkish tennis participant Zeynep Sonmez was compelled to withdraw from a girls’s doubles match at Roland Garros on Friday after tripping exhausting on a small promoting board close to the again of the courtroom whereas chasing the ball throughout level.
She escaped with minor accidents however demanded that the board be eliminated.
“I left the courtroom with two stitches and a bruised knee. Fortunately, my signs didn’t worsen. Do we actually have to attend till a participant is severely injured earlier than eradicating the courtside boards? Participant security have to be our precedence,” Sonmez wrote in a put up on X.
Her fall occurred on courtroom 6. As he tried to run for a excessive ball, the bounce was too excessive and he missed a two-handed backhand, clipping the board together with his foot earlier than falling face-first into the sheeting on the fence.
As she lay on the bottom, her doubles associate Tatiana Maria and her opponents Dayana Yastremska and Angelina Kalinina went to test on her.
Sonmez obtained again to his toes however was unable to proceed, and the pair trailed 2-0 within the first set.
An identical incident occurred to British participant Katie Boulter, who misplaced to Anastasia Potapova within the second spherical of her singles match on Thursday. Throughout his shot, Boulter caught the only real of his foot on a board with the title of Lacoste, the official match associate, and fell.
“This stuff must cease,” Boulter wrote in a put up on X on Friday. “I used to be fortunate final night time, however subsequent time I won’t be.”
When requested if the billboards can be eliminated, organizers stated they’d raised the difficulty with the match referee and had been awaiting an replace.
4-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek stated the scenario wanted to be addressed.
“In fact, when one thing like this occurs, there needs to be a response, as a result of there are different methods to ensure we stand out,” Swiatek stated. “Generally it is exhausting to evaluate. Clearly on clay, the ball flies greater so typically you want more room. You need to use the courtroom a bit extra with issues like spin.”
Swiatek stated the scenario may very well be simply resolved by transferring the small rectangular board to a different location.
“I want they’d promote some place else or promote differently,” she stated. “As a result of it is positively not secure.”
Marta Kostyuk, who received her third spherical match on Friday, stated her slender escape within the second spherical in opposition to Katie Vorinecs was as a result of she determined to not chase the identical ball.
“Sure, it is horrible. There was a second within the final recreation when (Volinets) made a really deep lob and I used to be set again fairly a bit,” she stated. “I would moderately lose factors than get injured. And I am clearly very dissatisfied for Zeynep. I hope it isn’t a giant deal. It occurred just a few occasions.”
