French Open row breaks out as star punished for being injured and offical slammed | Tennis | Sport

A tennis player was given a penalty for taking too long to recover from an injury in a bizarre moment during French Open qualifying. The incident took place in the second set of Monday’s match between Marco Cecchinato and Max Houkes. Cecchinato had just won the opening set, securing a 7-5 victory in the tiebreak with a smashed winner.

At the other end of the court, Houkes fell to the floor and was seen clutching the back of his right leg. He appeared to be in serious pain and let out a few groans as he rolled around on the clay surface. Cecchinato made his way towards Houkes, asking if he was suffering from cramp and helping the Dutch player to stretch his affected leg.

After taking a few moments to recover, Houkes was helped to his feet by tournament officials and was escorted back to his chair.

However, the 25-year-old was penalised for the time lost while he was on the ground, seemingly because it was not an official medical timeout.

The umpire announced: “Mr Houkes will concede three games and then he can receive 60 seconds of treatment, for the cramping situation.”

A tournament official was then heard saying to Houkes: “I told you, you have to keep on playing straight up.” Houkes later appeared to tell the official: “This is complete bull****.”

As a result of the penalty, Houkes was forced to begin the second set at 3-0 down and went on to lose 6-2, with Cecchinato moving into the second round of qualifying.

The latter defeated Stefanos Sakellaridis in his next match and will face fellow Italian player Andrea Pellegrino in the third qualifying round, with the winner progressing to the French Open main draw.

British qualifier Toby Samuel is also one game away from reaching the first round proper, with the 23-year-old set to face Gonzalo Bueno.

However, the same cannot be said for Dan Evans, who was beaten in straight sets by teenager Daniel Jade in the first qualifying round.

That’s despite Evans being the oldest player to compete in French Open qualifying at the age of 35. He hasn’t featured in the main draw of any Grand Slam since being handed a wildcard at Wimbledon last year.

Another British player, Jay Clarke, got through his opening match against Dane Sweeny but was defeated by Thomas Faurel in the second round.