By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 3, 2023
Aussie Marc Polmans has been having a solid season, rising in the rankings from well outside the Top 300 to inside the Top 150, thanks to 39 wins across all levels.
The 26-year-old was denied his 40th win in Shanghai, however, as he was disqualified from a qualifying match after hitting a ball in anger that struck the umpire in the face.
There isn’t much video of the incident, but there is more than enough here:
Polman was leading Italy's Stefano Napolitano 7-6 (3),6-6 (6-5) when he botched a volley at the net and abruptly sent the ball flying. Unfortunately the ball hit chair umpire Ben Anderson in the face. Polmans was quickly disqualified and, reportedly, Anderson is okay.
A day later, Polmans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to apologize. "The umpire, Ben, has accepted my apology for my actions - he knows it was unintentional and I shanked the ball on the frame in frustration in the heat of the moment," Polmans wrote. "We both move on. It was a high pressure situation and I should have reacted better."
It had been a great season full of hope for Polmans, until then. He has never made the main draw of a Masters 1000 event.
The incident was eerily similar to one involving Denis Shapovalov at Davis Cup, which saw the Canadian fire a ball that hit umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye. Gabas had to have surgery to repair a fractured bone under his left eye.