Chinese star Zhang Shuai has received an apology from Hungarian tennis player Amarissa Kiara Toth for her disgraceful act of wiping a bounce mark while Shuai was debating the wrong call made by the umpire during the game in the Round of 32 match in Budapest.
The opening set of the game between the 20-year-old Hungarian and the 34-year-old Chinese was tied at 5 games each when Shuai’s forehand winner over the court was wrongly declared an ‘out’ by the umpire. Toth wiped the bounce mark of the ball within the boundaries as Shuai was arguing with the umpire over the decision.
Shuai was shocked by what had happened and withdrew from the game, thereby surrendering a walkover.
Toth, on the other hand, lost her next match against Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine on Thursday.
“I did not think that my first ever WTA main draw success of my career would cause such a storm,” Toth stated in a statement following her defeat against the Ukrainian. She added, “I am extremely sorry for what happened, I respect Zhang Shuai as a player and as a person. It was never my intention to disrespect, hurt or upset anybody, let alone Zhang Shuai.”
“I do realise I shouldn’t have celebrated the way I celebrated after the match and I’m sorry for that,” the Hungarian expressed. She also stated that she was behaving in the heat of the moment and got lost in her emotions and the moment.”I focused on tennis, I didn’t want to win like that.”