A LITTLE BOY was left in tears after a red-faced Romanian lobbed a racket into the French Open crowd.
Irina-Camelia Begu chucked the equipment in a rage against a water box while she was 2-0 down in the third set of her second-round match.
Irina-Camelia Begu threw her racket down into the clay in frustration
It took a wicked bounce off the court and into the front rows of the crowd
The Romanian was allowed to continue after avoiding a default
The racket bounced violently into the stands of court 13.
And though it did not hit the youngster directly, he was left distraught and startled by the incident.
World No63 Begu was lucky not to be defaulted.
But she did receive a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct after consultation with a tournament supervisor.
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Bucharest-born Begu, 31, later apologised and posed for a photo with the kid and his parents.
The unseeded star remains in the French Open following her 6-7 6-3 6-4 comeback win over Russian No30 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Journalists and viewers on social media could not believe she avoided disqualification and was allowed to carry on.
Photographer Ella Ling added: “I was there. Absolutely beggars belief how she was allowed to continue playing. Horrible.”
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Earlier in the French Open, Russian Andrey Rublev also escaped major punishment when he slammed a ball in anger and it rebounded, flashing past a tournament court assistant.
Former world doubles No1 Rennae Stubbs added: “Seeing the Begu incident and Rublev incident from the other day, tennis officials really need to step up their game.
“I think both should have been defaults.
“We MUST start making players accountable for stupid decisions and those were both stupid decisions and could have been a lot worse.”
In 2020, Novak Djokovic was famously booted out of the US Open after accidentally striking a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball.
