Australian tennis player Marc Polmans sorry for smashing ball in umpire’s face as Nick Kyrgios reacts
Australian tennis player Marc Polmans has apologised after being disqualified from a match for smashing a ball in the umpire's face.
Polmans faced Italy's Stefano Napolitano in a Shanghai Masters qualifying match, and failed to execute a backhanded drop shot on match point.
But it was what happened after his error that left fans' jaws on the floor.
Clearly frustrated after hitting the net, Polmans whacked the rebounding ball in frustration.
Unfortunately for the Aussie, it flew full pelt into the umpire Ben Anderson's face.
The footage shows Polmans walking towards the umpire offering an apology but he was unsurprisingly disqualified, handing Napolitano the win.
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Nick Kyrgios, who knows a thing or two about picking up punishments for his actions on a tennis court, reacted on social media to the incident.
"Interested to see what the fine will be," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a laughing face.
"All things considered (15 thousand pounds) for the bottle shake at Queens."
Kyrgios was referencing the time he was caught on camera appearing to mimic performing a sex act during a change of ends, shaking his bottle before squeezing water out of it and taking a sip.
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A win would have seen Polmans, ranked 140 in the world, advance to the main draw of a ATP 1000 event for the first time.
He will lose any prize money and ranking points picked up during the qualifying stage in Shanghai, but ATP has said he will not face any further punishment.
Polmans publicly apologised to Anderson, the Scottish umpire.
"It was a high pressure situation and I should have reacted better,"; he said.
"The umpire, Ben, has accepted my apology for my actions. He knows it was unintentional and I shanked the ball on the frame in frustration in the heat of the moment.
"We both move on. I look forward to shouting Ben a coffee the next time we meet."