Romanian player apologizes after child hit with racket at French Championships

Romanian tennis player Irina Camelia Bego apologized after she threw her racket to the ground and bounced towards the audience and hit a child, during her match yesterday in the second round of the French Open (Roland Garros).

Frustration dominated Peugeot when it was late during the third set of its match against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, and the match ended with Peugeot winning 6/7 (3/7), 6/3, 6/4.

Play was stopped as the child, who was sitting near the referee's seat, cried and was comforted by his parents.

Peugeot received a yellow card, continued playing and eventually won to advance to the third round.

Then Bijou went to the child and took pictures with him, and apologized at a press conference after the match for her behavior in a moment of frustration.

"Yes, it's an embarrassing moment for me, so I don't want to talk about it too much," Bijou said. "I just want to apologize."

She added, "I've never done anything like this in my entire career and I feel really bad and regret it. So I say again I apologize for what happened and it's just an embarrassing moment for me."

She continued, "It was a difficult moment, because I did not want to throw this racket. I hit the field with it, but I never expected it to bounce that far."

The French Tennis Federation said in a statement that the tournament referee, Remy Azimar, said: "The tournament supervisor spoke with the child's parents. They confirmed that the child was fine and did not suffer an injury."

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