Player Defaulted In DC For Accidently Hitting Line Judge

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 2nd August 2013

Player Defaulted In DC For Accidently Hitting Line Judge

epa03759098 Olga Puchkova of Russia returns to Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 25 June 2013. EPA/TOM HEVEZI |

Line judges have been regarded as an endangered species after David Nalbandian vented his anger on some courtside furniture in last year’s Queen’s Club final and left the official in charge of the baseline with a badly gashed shin. Now Russia’s Olga Puchkova has been defaulted from her second round match at Washington DC’s Citi Open after a tempestuous reaction to losing a point in the third set resulted in a male line judge being hit hard on the knee.

Puchkova, world no.88, was losing 3-6, 6-3, 4-1 against Argentina’s Paula Ormaechea when she committed her crime. Umpire, Carrie Hinueber, cited her for a code violation and requested WTA supervisor Melanie Tabb to head to the court and make a ruling.

“She didn’t mean to do it, but it happened,” Tabb said. “Clearly, you hit someone with a ball, that’s pretty much a default situation.”

Afterwards a contrite Puchkova issued an official statement through the tournament, maintaining she was “sincerely sorry” that she “accidentally” hit the official. “I wasn’t looking where the tennis ball would go,” Puchkova said, adding that she apologized to the line judge.

Tabb maintained even though Puchkova insisted it was an accident, the rules still required the offending player to be defaulted. Tabb told the Associated Press: “I 100% believe her that that’s true — that she didn’t mean to do it. She wasn’t even looking in that direction. … She was just hitting the ball in frustration after she lost a point.

“It’s not just the ‘intention’ that matters. It’s the result of her action. And she did hit the line judge. And he was bruised on his knee from the ball, because it was hit very hard.”