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Australian tennis player Marc Polmans has been disqualified from the Shanghai Masters during qualifying after whacking a tennis ball and hitting the chair umpire.
Polmans, 26, vented his frustration while on the cusp of victory and reaching the main draw in the ATP 1000 event. He hit a ball in anger while leading Italian Stefano Napolitano 7-6 (7-3), 6-6.
The Australian world No.140 appeared to be attempting to hit a ball out of the court, but instead it hit the umpire sitting in an elevated position above the court.
Tennis officialdom comes down heavily on players for incidents which threaten the safety umpires, lines people or ball boys.
Australian tour veteran John Millman said there were “no excuses” for player indiscretions but said Polmans would be extremely remorseful.
“Really hope the umpire is okay. They should be safe working in their environment. No excuses for this,“said Millman on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
“No one would feel worse than Marc about this. He’s possibly the nicest person I know.”
Men’s grand slam record holder champion Novak Djokovic was famously disqualified from the 2020 US Open in the fourth round after he inadvertently hit a line judge in the throat with a ball smacked in anger.
At the time, the Serbian held 17 major titles but now has 24. Djokovic returned to Flushing Meadows in New York on the verge of claiming the grand slam in 2021 but missed it after losing the final to Russian Daniil Medvedev.
Djokovic apologised to US Open officials after his indiscretion three years ago.
Novak Djokovic and the linesperson incident in 2020.Credit: Getty
“This whole situation has left me really sad and empty,” he said at the time. “I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok. I’m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong.
“As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being,” Djokovic added. “I apologise to the US Open tournament and everyone associated for my behaviour.”
In another incident, world No.3 Denis Shapovalov was defaulted and fined after hitting a chair umpire in the eye with a ball during a Davis Cup tie in 2017. Umpire Arnaud Gabas suffered a fractured bone under his left eye and needed surgery.
Shapovalov was immediately remorseful, saying at the time: “I feel incredibly ashamed and embarrassed and I just feel awful for letting my team down, for letting my country down, for acting in a way that I would never want to act. I can promise that’s the last time I will do anything like that. I’m going to learn from this and try to move past it.”
Polmans has a career-high ranking of 116 achieved in 2020. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of 68.
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