Begu apologizes after racket hits child in face

Irina-Camelia Begu has apologised after her racket hit a child in the face when she bounced it into the crowd at the French Open.

The incident occurred in the third set of Begu's second-round win over Ekaterina Alexandrova, with the Romanian chucking her racket into the clay before it flew towards spectators.

Begu - who checked on the child after the match and posed for photographs - called the moment "embarrassing" and admitted she was fortunate not to be defaulted.

"It's an embarrassing moment for me, so I don't want to talk too much about it. I just want to apologise," said Begu.

"My whole career, I didn't do something like this, and I feel really bad and sorry. So I'm just going to say again, sorry for the incident."

Earlier this season, Alexander Zverev was expelled from the Mexico Open and put on probation for one year by the ATP Tour after repeatedly hitting the chair umpire's stand with his racket.

Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open in 2020 when he hit a line judge with a ball.