
An Italian junior player, Maria Vittori Vivani, has been disqualified from the Girls Junior Australian Open after she struck a ball boy with a ball.
The seventeen year-old had just lost a point in her first round match, and had looked to get rid of a spare service ball she no longer needed. She then appears to have hit the ball off the main section of the court, striking the ball boy.
The player immediately appears to have tried to make amends, raising her arm in apologetic fashion. It did not seem that the player was aiming to hit the ball boy, as the player was not looking specifically in the direction of the bally boy, and nor does the bally seem to have been struck with malice or unnecessary power.
Nonetheless, despite the seemingly accidental nature of the incident, Vivani was immediately disqualified, handing her opponent an easy avenue into the next round.
The situation shares some similarities with the Queen’s final disqualification of David Nalbandian who was disqualified when he kicked out at an advertising board in 2012 The board, unbeknownst to Nalbandian, was not fixed down and broken splinters of the board then injured a lines judge, drawing blood from a leg wound.
Nalbandian was similarly immediately apologetic in the aftermath, but was also disqualified as a result of the incident, handing the title to Marin Cilic by default.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRB3InRhMgI