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Causing a racket
Kuerten disqualified in doubles match for throwing racket at umpire
Posted: Tuesday June 02, 1998 05:57 PM
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Kuerten faces an undetermined fine because of his outburst (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- Gustavo Kuerten, who won the French Open singles title last year, was disqualified in doubles Tuesday when he threw his racket at an umpire, hitting a fan in the stands.
Kuerten, who made a storybook run to the men's title last year as an unseeded player and became a fan favorite at Roland Garros, was knocked out in singles last week in the second round.
He faces an undetermined fine because of Tuesday's outburst. Tournament referee Gilbert Ysern said he was unsure whether Kuerten could be suspended for throwing the racket at umpire Bruno Rebeuh.
"Hopefully, we can give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he didn't really aim at killing the chair umpire by throwing the racket at him," the referee said.
Ysern said the fan hit by the racket apparently was not hurt. Witnesses said the fan was hit in the shoulder.
"He lost his mind a little bit," Ysern said. "The chair umpire could have been hit, maybe hurt by the racket. It's obviously a serious situation. It's a serious case."
Kuerten and Rebeuh, were not available for comment Tuesday.
The incident evoked memories of John McEnroe's disqualification from the 1990 Australian Open for throwing a racket, an incident that led to $6,500 in fines for McEnroe.
At Wimbledon in 1995, Rebeuh was also involved when American Jeff Tarango stormed off court in the middle of a match. He accused Rebeuh of favoritism and Tarango's wife slapped Rebeuh.
That incident resulted in a fine and a one-year suspension from Wimbledon for Tarango.
Kuerten was teamed with fellow Brazilian Fernando Meligeni in a doubles match against Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman and Australia's Patrick Rafter on the Suzanne Lenglen Court.
"At the end of the first set tiebreaker, he threw his racket that went just past the chair umpire and went into the stands, hitting someone in the stands," said Stefan Fransson, a Grand Slam supervisor, who witnessed the incident. "He threw it from around the service line."
There had been disputes about line calls during the tiebreaker, which the Brazilians lost.
Benjamin Deshayes, an usher at the match, said the incident happened moments after the end of the tiebreaker.
"Kuerten threw his racket at the umpire, but the umpire ducked and the racket went into the audience," Deshayes said. "Kuerten got the racket back from the audience and threw it on the ground."
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