Rennae Stubbs has called for players to be instantly defaulted if they smack a ball into the crowd after Daniil Medvedev’s disqualification against Novak Djokovic at the China Open.
At 7-5, 5-3 down in their semi-final, Medvedev smacked a ball in anger into the crowd after losing a point, and it ended up hitting a spectator in the front row on Monday.
The fan doubled over in pain, held his face, and was then led out of the arena at the ATP 500 event in Beijing, while Medvedev was defaulted from the contest.
The Russian later said he was “terribly sorry” and that he was trying to get in contact with him to apologise, while Djokovic had sympathy for the 30-year-old after he was defaulted for a similar incident at the 2020 US Open.
As the dust settles on this incident, Serena Williams’ coach Stubbs has called for incidents like this to end. But she says the only way to do that is to come down hard on those offenders.
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While the former world No 1 women’s doubles player suggested she was no shrinking violet during her career, the Australian said she never “lost control” like Medvedev and thinks if a player hits a ball into the crowd, they should get immediately disqualified.
She said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, “I am not an Emma Navarro. I am not a Jessica Pegula. [I am] Definitely more along the [Aryna] Sabalenka train. But I would never do that. I would never throw my racket to the point where I would lose control into the crowd. I don’t understand why every single umpire doesn’t make this a blanket rule.
“I don’t care. I’ve seen [Stefanos] Tsitsipas hit balls into the crowd. I’ve told you the story with the referee who could come on the court and default him immediately said, ‘He [the spectator] caught the ball’. The guy caught the ball? Like none of that should matter.
“If you ding a ball out of the stands and it goes anywhere near the crowd. There’s a little bit of ambiguity. What if it goes over the stands and goes out? I don’t care. I think we need to do something where if you hit a ball that leaves the tennis court and it goes in the vicinity of anywhere near the crowd or your racket, you should be defaulted immediately. It’s the only way to stop it.”
In the past, Stefanos Tsitsipas narrowly avoided hitting a fan after firing a low projectile ball into the crowd at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, while Denis Shapovalov was defaulted after he hit umpire Arnaud Gabas with a ball during a Davis Cup tie, leading to the official suffering a fractured eye socket.
Stubbs’ co-host Caitlin Thompson said it was “dumb” that the only way a player is likely to get defaulted for an incident like this is if a fan, member of staff, or player gets hit or hurt.
She argued that preventative measures should be put in place and it is more about the intent rather than the end result.
Thompson said, “Why don’t we have that rule? It’s so dumb. So much of rulemaking is about taking preventive measures. Are you going to wait for somebody like an umpire to get their face broken?
“Are you going to wait for one of your marquee players, in the form of Novak Djokovic, to get defaulted at a slam? Are you going to wait for a semi-final to end as it has in Beijing this way? Like, that sucks.
She added, “Automatic default…but only if it hits somebody. Whereas the amount of times we’ve seen players throw, kick, send rackets, balls, other equipment in harm’s way towards people. To me, it shouldn’t be what results. It should be the intent, which is to fire something off out of frustration.”
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