Karolina Pliskova smashes hole in umpire’s chair after defeat to Maria Sakkari

Karolina Pliskova smashed a hole in the umpire’s chair in anger after a contentious line call late in her loss to Maria Sakkari in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The sixth seed was tied at 5-5 in the deciding set with her Greek opponent when her smash was called out by a line judge.

Replays showed the ball landed inside the sideline but umpire Marta Mrozinska refused to accept Pliskova’s pleadings to overturn the call.

Sakkari won the game and then served out the match to win 3-6 6-3 7-5. Pliskova did not shake Mrozinska’s hand and instead smashed her racket several times against the side of the umpire’s chair, breaking the wood.

Pliskova’s twin sister Kristyna, who is also a professional player, subsequently tweeted: “The worst i have ever seen @wta and i hope this lady Marta Mrozinska will never ever judge any match of me or Karolina again #blacklistforever”

Things were a lot more straightforward for world number one Simona Halep, who won 12 straight games against exciting young Japanese Naomi Osaka in a 6-1 6-0 victory that lasted just 59 minutes.

There were also wins for US Open champion Sloane Stephens, seventh seed Caroline Garcia and 13th seed Madison Keys.