Kazakh tennis player Yulia Putintseva has apologized to her coach after hitting him with a bizarre on-court rant during her first-round defeat at the Connecticut Open at the weekend.
Putintseva, 22, was heard berating coach Roman Kislyansky during a break between games over what she thought was a lack of support.
“You never applauded me when I won the ball,” she is heard saying. “You are too busy watching your videos about the flat Earth.”
“Are you completely crazy or what?” the coach replies.
Kislyansky then attempts to offer some tips, urging Putintseva to “come closer to the ball,” only for the player to tell him to “go away” and “wipe the idiotic grin off your face.”
Moscow-born Putintseva, ranked 50th in the world, went down to a 6-0, 6-0 defeat against Alize Cornet of France in New Haven. In the second set she proceeded to destroy her racket in another fit of anger.
Putintseva reportedly apologized on her Instagram account for the outburst, saying “sometimes it's hard to control emotions, but I will work on it. I'm sorry! It was hell of a day yesterday, I couldn't do anything. Unfortunately sometimes it happens in tennis.”