Boris Becker calls out US Open star for 'terrible behaviour' as crowd loudly boos

Boris Becker has called out Yulia Putintseva and told her she exhibited “terrible behaviour” during her US Open third round defeat to Jasmine Paolini. The Kazakh star cut a frustrated figure throughout the match as she was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by the world No. 5.

Putintseva reached the third round in New York after overcoming Linda Noskova in her first match and seeing off Wang Xinyu in round two.

But she failed to raise her game for the challenge of Paolini, with her opponent hitting 22 winners on her way to victory.

With the match getting away from the 2020 US Open quarter-finalist, Putintseva took her frustrations out on a ball girl.

The 29-year-old stood metres away from the girl and signalled for some balls. But as two were bounced in her direction, she refused to move her body at all as the balls hit into her and rolled away. It was only when she was thrown a third ball that she opened her hand and caught it.

The crowd was clearly unhappy at her behaviour, with some fans showing their disapproval by booing her. And six-time Grand Slam champion Becker gave his own verdict on the incident after replying to a clip on X as he wrote: “Who does Putintseva think she is. Terrible behaviour towards the ball girl!”

Putintseva, who has been competing on the WTA Tour for 13 years, reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in July after knocking out five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek along the way but has never gone beyond the quarter-final of any major.

And after her defeat to Paolini, she apologised for her behaviour as she wrote on her Instagram story: “I want to apologise to her for the way I was when she was giving me the balls.

“Honestly speaking it was not about her. I was really p***ed at myself by not winning the game from the breakpoint and then got [so] empty with my emotions and deep in my thoughts that I was not focusing on what's going on and who gives me the ball. All the ball kids were doing amazing as always at the US Open.”

Meanwhile, Paolini is preparing to take on Karolina Muchova for a place in the quarter-finals. And ahead of the showdown, the 28-year-old Italian said: “I'm a fan of her. She's playing unbelievably well.

“I really love how she plays. She can play every shot - slice, volleys and serve. She's a very complete player, I think, very tough opponent. I hope we can play a really, really good match.

“I don't know what to expect. I think I played last time here against her in the qualifying in the second round in 2018 or 2019. So a long time ago.”