Fans fume as Jenson Brooksby hits ball boy with racket yet escapes disqualification

American tennis player Jenson Brooksby hit a ball boy with his racquet in an angry outburst during a Miami Open match on Thursday. incident occurred in 3rd set of a match between Brooksby and Argentina's Federico Coria. Brooksby lost his temper after missing a serve, tossing his racquet behind court. racquet hit ball boy on his legs. Following incident, umpire Carlos Bernardes handed Brooksby a minor penalty, deducting one point from his total score. 

However, it has now prompted a social media debate, with tennis fans criticising harshness of Brooksby's punishment after he was spared disqualification.

Former American tennis player Patrick McEnroe was among those who chastised US tennis for not punishing Brooksby more severely. 55-year-old turned to his official Twitter handle to react to incident as he wrote, “Seriously what is it going to take …drawing blood …to properly punish a tennis player. This is absolutely absurd".

Meanwhile, supporters of Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic also joined bandwagon on Twitter, suggesting that if 20-time Grand Slam winner h been involved in episode, he would not have gotten away with just a point deduction. Fans reminded how Djokovic was kicked out of 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge in throat with a tennis ball.

Last month, when German tennis player Alexander Zverev was involved in a similar outburst during a match at Mexican Open, he was thrown out of tournament and was fined $40,000. Zverev was handed punishment after he hit umpire's chair with his racquet following his defeat against doubles pair Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara. 

Brooksby vs Coria

As far as match is concerned, Brooksby came back from a set down to beat Coria 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Going into match, Brooksby climbed two places in live rankings to No. 37, a career-best for 21-year-old. Before match versus Brooksby, Coria h also risen in live rankings to become new world No. 59. Brooksby will now lock horns against Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili in  second round of Miami Open on Saturday.  

Image: AP