France’s Terence Atmane AVOIDS disqualification after hitting a fan

Tennis star Terence Atmane escaped punishment in his opening-round match the French Open on Sunday after he fired a ball into the crowd and hit a fan when the point was already over.

Playing in front of a home crowd, Atmane raced into a two-set lead, but lost the third and then fell a double-break behind in the fourth to his Austrian opponent Sebastian Ofner.

At 4-1 down the 22-year-old Atmane, who currently holds a career-best ranking of 120th, hit a backhand long, and as the ball came back to him he fired the ball into the stands at the far end, hitting a female fan in the process.

There was a stunned silence from the crowd, before the match referee went over to check that the woman was OK.

Meanwhile, Atmane initially made his way to the net to briefly speak to the umpire prior to returning to the baseline to wait for the match to resume.

Terence Atmane (pictured) fired the ball into the crowd after the point was already over

The ball hit a female fan, leaving the crowd in a stunned silence as they waited to see whether Atmane would be punished

The match was delayed by 15 minutes while the referee checked on the woman, but Atmane was allowed to continue and escaped with a warning

Following a 15-minute delay, Atmane was given a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct but no further penalty was issued.

The match was allowed to continue and Ofner completed his comeback to advance into the second round following a 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Ofner admitted afterwards he was surprised that Atmane had not been disqualified following the incident.

‘For me, it was a bit surprising, because if you do something like that on a small court, you have to be punished, you know?’ he said.

‘Because it’s not like you hit the ball normally. It was full power. The ball was so fast. Straight in the crowd. There were people disqualified for less.’

He continued: ‘The referee said, “Oh, yeah, I was talking with the lady. The lady said at the beginning it was hurting but now it’s fine, and everything was OK. She saw the ball coming. So it’s not enough for disqualification.” 

‘I think if he would see how it was, maybe he would decide different. A little bit more unlucky and it’s going directly in the face. And then something can happen (like) a broken nose or whatever.’

At last year’s tournament, Japan’s Miyu Kato and her doubles partner were forced to forfeit a match after Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck following a point on Court 14.

Atmane went on to lose in five sets, but his tournament could have been over even earlier

His opponent, Sebastian Ofner (pictured) felt the Frenchman could have been disqualified

Japan’s Miyu Kato (left) was left in tears after having to forfeit her match along with her doubles partner at last year’s French Open when she accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck

Novak Djokovic was also disqualified at the 2020 US Open for hitting a line judge with the ball after losing a crucial point

Novak Djokovic was also famously disqualified at the last-16 stage of the US Open in 2020 after hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball when he lost a key point against Pablo Carreno Busta. 

He rushed to check on the line judge afterwards, but was still defaulted for his actions.  

Atmane could have suffered a similar fate but was left off the hook, although his tournament is now over after losing to Ofner across five sets.

A French tennis federation spokesperson said there would be no comment before Monday’s play.