Tammy pays price for sporting behaviour
An honest Tamarine Tanasugarn accepted her fault to the chair umpire on match point and lost her qualifying match to Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva in the US$225,000 WTA Aegon Classic in Birmingham on Saturday.
At 6-4 5-4 40-30 Tamarine was declared a winner by the chair umpire when Kudryavtseva failed to return a shot. But the Thai had unintentionally yelled, “Come on!” before the point was finished, prompting the Russian to approach the chair umpire in protest.
According to ITF rules, a player is not allowed to react until the point is finished. Tammy was asked by the chair umpire whether she really uttered those words and she admitted the truth. Play resumed and the Russian dictated play from then on to win 4-6 7-5 6-3.
“I didn’t mean to do shout. The situation was just too tense out there. After that Alla played unbelievably great tennis. As an athlete, I was sad to lose but I’m happy that I stayed true to myself. It’s the right thing to do,”
Tammy’s act received compliments from fans and many people in the circuit, especially Kudryavtseva, who wrote on her Twitter account, “Tammy is the most honest person I know…. No one else I know would do that. I hope one day I’ll have the balls to do the right thing too.”
