'It is unacceptable' - Tim Henman feels Irina-Camelia Begu lucky to avoid DQ after throwing racquet at French Open

ByAlex Livie

Published 26/05/2022 at 21:57 GMT

Irina-Camelia Begu caused a huge stir at Roland-Garros on Thursday when a racquet she threw into the ground bounced into the crowd and startled a young child. She apologised, but Tim Henman felt she was lucky to be allowed to stay in the French Open. Stream the 2022 French Open live and on-demand on discovery+.

Tim Henman feels Irina-Camelia Begu was lucky to avoid disqualification from the French Open after a racquet she threw ended up in the crowd, and says players should learn from star names such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

During the third set of her win over Ekaterina Alexandrova, Begu trudged back to her chair after dropping her serve and threw her racket into the clay in frustration.

It took a big bounce off the clay and ended up in the crowd, with the incident frightening a young child.

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A supervisor was called to the court and after a discussion, Begu was given a warning as to her conduct by way of a punishment.

In the Eurosport studio, Henman said there has been too many incidents of players losing their cool and throwing racquets. He feels players need to rein things in, and that Begu was fortunate not to be ejected from the event.

“It is unacceptable,” Henman said. “It is inevitable players will get frustrated and players will throw racquets, but they will need to take responsibility for where that racquet goes.

“And if you throw it like that you are at risk of it bouncing and it goes into the crowd and hits a child that’s in tears.

"Incredibly lucky not to be disqualified.”

Watch shocking moment Begu throws racquet, makes kid cry and gets warning

Henman - albeit reluctantly - gave a brief lesson in how to throw racquets in a safer manner, citing Stefanos Tsitsipas’ victory celebration against Zdenek Kolar as an example.

“The irony of this is the way Tsitsipas threw his racquet when he won, he threw it flat straight down so it is not going to bounce anywhere,” Henman said.

“I am not wanting to give lessons as it’s not the right thing to do, you do not see Rafa and Roge, or Swiatek or these top players doing it because they are in control.

“We have seen too much of it and it is setting the wrong example.”

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Stream the 2022 French Open live and on-demand on discovery+.

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