Australian tennis player Marc Polman says the chair umpire has accepted his apology after being hit in the face with a ball whacked in frustration during the Shanghai Masters qualifying tournament.
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World No.140 Polmans was immediately disqualified after the incident which occurred when he squandered a second match point in a two hour, 34 minute battle with Italian Stefano Napolitano on Tuesday.
Leading 7-6 (7-3) 6-6 (6-6) he put a return into the net. As the ball bounced back towards him he smashed at it and the ball flew from close range into the face of British official Ben Anderson.
Anderson appears to have escaped serious injury, with a tournament representative saying he was struck on the cheek and nose and had returned to his hotel to rest.
"An update from me - 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," Polmans wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday.
"We both move on. It was a high pressure situation and I should have reacted better."
It was a virtual replay of an incident involving Canadian Denis Shapovalov during a Davis Cup clash with Great Britain in 2017. The umpire on that occasion, Arnaud Gabas, was left with a fractured eye socket.
A win for the 26-year-old Polmans would have ensured a place in the main draw of an ATP 1000 event for the first time. Instead he will lose any prize money and ranking points picked up during the qualifying tournament.
Further action may follow. Nick Kyrgios, referring to one of his own fines, which cost him nearly A$30,000, posted on X: "Interested to see what the fine will be. All things considered (15 thousand pounds) for the bottle shake at queens."
Polmans was one of seven Australians in the second and final round of qualifying, four of whom reached the main draw to join another seven compatriots in the opening round.
Top seed in qualifying Rinky Hijikata took just 80 minutes to see off Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe 6-1 6-4, while James Duckworth also enjoyed a straight-sets victory, 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 over fellow Aussie James McCabe.
World No.256 Dane Sweeny was a 6-2 6-1 winner over South Korea's Seongchan Hong and world No.292 Philip Sekulic defeated Arthur Weber of France 6-4 6-3.
However, Luke Saville was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin and Li Tu pushed American Aleksandar Kovacevic to three sets, but lost 2-6 7-6 (10-8) 5-7.
Alex de Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, Max Purcell, Chris O'Connell and Aleksandar Vukic all skipped qualifying due to their rankings.
World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz will make his Shanghai debut later in the week, while defending champion from 2019 Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas are also among the field.
- with PA
Australian Associated Press
