Putintseva was forced to apologise as she decided to ask for balls to serve and then stood there as let them drop without moving her body to retrieve them. She backtracked and said she was annoyed at herself as well as being in the zone.
But tennis legends in Becker and Lopez took a more discerning tone towards the Kazakh and called out the 'terrible behaviour' on social media.
“Who does Putintseva think she is… Terrible behaviour towards the ball girl!!!” former six-time Grand Slam champion Becker wrote on X.
"Shame on her!!! Humiliation of a ball kid is the last thing you do on a tennis court. I want to apologize 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**** at myself by not winning the game from the breakpoint and then got empty with my emotions and 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 were doing amazing as always at the open," said Putintseva in backtracking yesterday in a social media statement.
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