Yulia Putintseva, the US Open tennis player who went viral for brutally disrespecting a ball girl, has issued an apology for her ‘terrible’ behaviour.
Putintseva bizarrely took her frustrations out on a blameless youngster during her third-round loss to Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini at Flushing Meadows.
The tense incident occurred with Putintseva a set and 4-2 down as the young girl – doing her job correctly – threw balls to Putintseva before she took her serve.
But there were incredibly awkward and uncomfortable scenes, as Putintseva strangely made no attempt to catch or pick them up, instead deciding to glare the girl down with her arms down by her side, in what looked hugely intimidating.
The Russian-born player from Kazakhstan was instantly slammed on social media for her actions – with one tennis fan calling her a ‘nasty person’ – and another saying that the ball girl ‘should’ve taken the ball and thrown it Putintseva’s face’.
Putintseva, 29, who was seeded 30th in the women’s singles before her elimination at the Grand Slam event in New York, has now issued a statement.
The tennis player is sorry for what she did and posted on social media: ‘I want to apologise to the ball girl for the way I was, when she was giving me balls.
‘Honestly speaking it was not about her. I was really p***** off at myself for not winning the game from the break point.
‘Then [I] got empty with my emotions and [so] deep in my thoughts, that I was not even focusing on what’s going on and who gives me the ball.
‘All the ball kids was [sic] doing amazing as always at the Open.’
Putintseva is a thee-time major quarter-finalist who has achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No.27 – although she is current ranked world No.32.
She’s won three WTA Tour titles to date which came at the 2019 Nuremberg Cup, 2021 Budapest Grand Prix and 2024 Birmingham Classic in the United Kingdom.
Putintseva represented Russia from 2009 to 2012 before she switched alliances to Kazakhstan.
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