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. The incident occurred in the 3rd set of a match between Brooksby and Argentina's Federico Coria. Brooksby lost his temper after missing a serve, tossing his racquet behind the court. The racquet hit the ball boy on his legs. Following the incident, umpire Carlos Bernardes handed Brooksby a minor penalty, deducting one point from his total score. Ostapenko Broady revisited as first Jenson Brooksby lets go of racquets which is evaded by ballsperson#MiamiOpen Gets a point penalty while his opponent Coria then argues for something harsher👇 pic.twitter.com/iXudIXwgdz — Llama Says☄🌠🚀 (@funnyzeitgist) March 24, 2022 However, it has now prompted a social media debate, with tennis fans criticising the 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. The 55-year-old turned to his official Twitter handle to react to the incident as he wrote, “Seriously what is it going to take …drawing blood …to properly punish a tennis player. This is absolutely absurd". Seriously what is it going to take …drawing blood …to properly punish a tennis player. This is absolutely absurd. — Patrick McEnroe (@PatrickMcEnroe) March 24, 2022 Meanwhile, supporters of Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic also joined the bandwagon on Twitter, suggesting that if the 20-time Grand Slam winner had been involved in the episode, he would not have gotten away with just a point deduction. Fans reminded how Djokovic was kicked out of the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball. Well Novak was kicked out of the US Open for hitting a ball that hit the ball person. Tossing a racquet is much worse, in my opinion. — Kelly Penny (@kapenny) March 24, 2022 as Rafa said, if there are no rules players will just keep doing it until something serious happens...sad! — I Ting Yang (@yang1_i) March 25, 2022 He should have been disqualified...the ball boy could have been seriously injured. — liz wegrzyn (@edaedalus) March 25, 2022 He needs a heavy penalty — Rosa Gilliam-Bader (@4rdztpsgz2) March 25, 2022 When the players start doing what the officials won’t do and start monitoring themselves, maybe this behavior will stop. When those put in danger by thrown rackets start suing, it will definitely stop. — Mrs Tennis (@mrs_tennis) March 24, 2022 Last month, when German tennis player Alexander Zverev was involved in a similar outburst during a match at the Mexican Open, he was thrown out of the tournament and was fined $40,000. Zverev was handed the punishment after he hit the umpire's chair with his racquet following his defeat against doubles pair Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara. Brooksby vs Coria As far as the match is concerned, Brooksby came back from a set down to beat Coria 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Going into the match, Brooksby climbed two places in the live rankings to No. 37, a career-best for the 21-year-old. Before the match versus Brooksby, Coria had also risen in the live rankings to become the new world No. 59. Brooksby will now lock horns against Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round of the Miami Open on Saturday. Image: AP

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement