'Never seen that': Tennis star in tears after 'bizarre' French Open drama
Rising star Katarina Zavatska would never have believed her French Open campaign would have taken this nightmarish turn after disaster struck in her three-set match with Kiki Berterns.
The twists and turns at the French Open in heavy and wet conditions continued on Day Two when the 20-year-old Ukrainian was left shattered in the third set when the strings on her tennis racquet snapped.
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But unbelievably, it was the third string that had snapped in just 10 minutes of play and the rest of Zavatska’s racquet were being re-strung.
This left the 20-year-old in tears and without a racket in a crucial part of the match.
But in a remarkable moment, her coach handed her his racquet despite not being her usual on-court weapon.
Unfortunately, the incident appeared to take a toll on the young Ukrainian as she failed to win another game and Bertens raced to a 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Fans stunned after Zavatska runs out of racquet
Fans were surprised at the unfortunate incident and couldn’t recall a time where a player had run out of racquet at a Grand Slam.
Not something you see every day:
Katarina Zavatska has broken three strings in the last 10 minutes and is out of strung racquets. Had to borrow a racquet from her coach in the stands. #RG20— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) September 28, 2020
Zavatska is in tears as all her racquets have their strings broken. #RG20 pic.twitter.com/pu0O97Nmy2
— tennis gifs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) September 28, 2020
Slightly bizarre and unfortunate scenes on Lenglen. Katarina Zavatska, who was playing a really good match against Kiki Bertens, broke numerous strings and ran out of racquets. Her coach then seemed to give her one of his (babolat not yonex). She lost the decider 6-0. #RG20 pic.twitter.com/H5ZjWYT04M
— The Tennis Podcast (@TennisPodcast) September 28, 2020
Never seen this before. Zavatska has no more racquets after the strings on 3 racquets are broken. She takes her coach’s racquet and starts crying.
— Nawal (@NawalNadal) September 28, 2020
While it could have been an unfortunate string of events, players have been criticising the new balls as being ‘heavy’ and the wet conditions wouldn’t have helped.
This could have been a factor on why the strings on Zavatska’s racquets were not holding up.
The damp conditions of Paris in Autumn prompted Victoria Azarenka walked off court after just three games in her opening match at the French Open.
Rafa Nadal has also been a heavy critic of the conditions and the balls in the lead up to the tournament.
Fifth-seed Bertens will now take on Sara Errani of Italy in the second round.
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