Maria Sakkari beat Yulia Putintseva in straight sets at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany on Sunday but sparks flew after their match, as both players turned the air blue in an X-rated spat
Two female players were embroiled in a furious post-match row at a tournament in Germany on Sunday, as one star told her rival to ‘go f*** herself’. Greek player Maria Sakkari, a wild card, beat Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-5, 7-6 in the third round of the Bad Homburg Open.
As the pair walked to the net for the obligatory clasp of hands, they both seemed to be calm. But bubbling beneath the surface was anger.
After a brief and loose handshake, tensions spilled over. Sakkari, 29, looked particularly unhappy and was heard telling her opponent: “Act like a human being.”
Putintseva insisted that she had, telling Sakkari to ‘go f***’ herself’ and to leave her alone. The 30-year-old then gestured for her opponent to move away.
Court-side microphones weren’t able to pick up every word of the back-and-forth row but Sakkari ended up following Putintseva to her bench. She eventually walked away but went back again just a few seconds later.
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“F****** hell, I’m what?” she appeared to ask. “Nobody likes you!”
Sakkari kept ranting, telling Putintseva to look into her eyes when shaking hands after the match. Then the umpire finally stepped in, urging them calm down. “Ladies, please,” they said.
In response, Putintseva gave a sarcastic bow in Sakkari’s direction. She said: “Thank you very much,” as the spat continued even as she made her way off Centre Court in the town of Bad Homburg near Frankfurt.
Sakkari was interviewed on the court, as the presenter joked: “Everyone saw a little bit of a discussion at the end, did she (Putintseva) invite you for dinner? What happened?”
After a brief smile and chuckles from the crowd, she replied: “I don’t think she’s gonna invite me for dinner for the rest of our lives. But I don’t care to be honest.
“I have very good friends and I’ll go to dinner with them. So, let me leave it here and say that I have a respect (for) her as a player but that’s it.”
Last year, Putintseva was criticised for an incident during her defeat to Jasmine Paolini at the US Open. A ballgirl had duly thrown two balls at the Kazakhstani, who despite it being her serve, ignored them.
Finally, she caught a third but was booed by the crowd, and widely slammed by tennis fans and pundits alike.
Putintseva apologised on two occasions for her ‘terrible behaviour’, saying: “It’s kind of scary the way the world can judge someone from just a three second video, that someone posts from one side, without seeing the rest on what was really happening,” she posted on social media.
“I was just playing tennis and lost a tough game, which was very close (in my opinion) to turn that match around. After the game (as you can see on a pic) I got very much disappointed and was almost crying, that I didn’t do better.
“At this time the girl was giving me the ball, which I didn’t even notice or so, because I was deep in my thoughts… I was not trying to humiliate her (or anyone) by not taking this ball that she was giving to me.
“I didn’t do anything disrespectful to anyone at this particular moment. I do apologise, if this girl thinks that it was something towards her. (And btw her name is Kate, very nice girl, which understood that it was nothing towards her).
“I can’t say that I am perfect all my career. I am getting angry on court, p*****, saying stupid stuff and curse like no tomorrow sometimes. Guilty for that. But I did never put myself “on top” of someone. That’s just not me at all.”