The 17 year old Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalov was fined $7000 for whacking the umpire in the face with a tennis ball during the Britain-Canada Davis Cup match at the weekend.
After a loose backhand resulted in the concession of a break point, Shapovalov took another ball out of his pocket and swung at it in frustration.
Disastrously, the ball smacked umpire Arnaud Gabas right in the eye.
Shapovalov cupped his hand over his mouth and apologised to the umpire. He sat on his chair and waited patiently for the umpire to announce the default. He was unlikely to win anyway at the point. He trailed Kyle Edmund 6-4 6-3 2*-1 at that stage.
Britain won the tie and proceed to face France in the quarter-final.
I feel incredibly ashamed and embarrassed and I just feel awful for letting my team down, for letting my country down, for acting in a way that I would never want to act.
I can promise that's the last time I'm going to do anything like that. I'm going to learn this and try to move past it.
Many years ago, that noted hooligan Tim Henman and his unfortunate doubles partner Jeremy Bates were disqualified at Wimbledon after the former belted a ball in frustration, accidentally hitting a ball girl.
The cameras moved away at the vital moment but the crowd and opposition oohed and aahed. The girl dissolved in tears while Henman tried to plead his case to referee Alan Mills. Somewhat unimpressively, he partially blamed the girl's positioning for the incident.
Mills and the umpire didn't agree and insisted on default.
Henman later tried to make it up to the girl with some flowers and a peck on the check.
