A French Open star was forced to retire from her match at Roland Garros after crashing into the wall having tripped over an advertising board
Zeynep Sonmez’s French Open campaign ended in shocking circumstances when she suffered a freak injury as she crashed into a wall during her women’s doubles match.
Partnering with Tatjana Maria, the Turkish player was taking on Dayana Yastremska and Anhelina Kalinina in the second round. As she attempted to return a shot towards the back of the court, Sonmez tripped over a mini advertisement board, which was placed around three metres behind the baseline. Despite its distance, the board still managed to interfere with play.
Sonmez stumbled into the wall, prompting the physios to rush onto the court and provide medical attention.
However, following a brief examination, it was decided that Sonmez wouldn’t be able to continue, and her partnership with Maria was forced to retire just three points into the opening set.
Many fans took to social media to voice their outrage with the tournament organisers, who had seemingly put the players at risk by leaving the advertisement boards in a hazardous position.
One fan fumed: “People talked about this just yesterday and how dangerous it is. If Roland Garros had listened, this injury would have never happened today…”
Another fan sympathised with Sonmez, saying: “This is ridiculous. Poor Sonmez!” Meanwhile, a third slammed the organisers, stating: “I don’t know why they’ve ever allowed these ads that are clearly in the players’ way. Mind-boggling.”
A fourth stated: “Unfortunately it happened again today, and unfortunately Sonmez wasn’t lucky to avoid an injury and she was forced to retire. @rolandgarros do you even care about the players after all these incidents?”
Sonmez had already been knocked out of the singles draw following a first-round loss to Daria Kasatkina. She is currently ranked 66th in the world, and has made it to the third round of a Grand Slam twice, first at Wimbledon last year and then at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Sonmez isn’t the sole French Open player to have been affected by them, with Katie Boulter voicing her anger about their positioning on social media. She posted on X: “THESE THINGS HAVE TO GO. Got lucky last night but next time I might not be…”