Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva has issued an apology for her “terrible behaviour” towards a ball girl during her match at the US Open.

“I want to apologize to the ball girl for the way I was, when she was giving me balls,” she said in a social media post on Monday.

The incident occurred during her third-round loss to Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, resulting in the player being booed by the crowd at Flushing Meadows and facing criticism from figures like Boris Becker and Piers Morgan.

Video footage captured the moment when two balls were thrown to Putintseva ahead of her next serve, but she ignored them and stared at the ball girl without moving. This left the young girl in an uncomfortable situation until Putintseva finally caught the third ball and resumed play while trailing 4-2 in the second set.

“Honestly speaking it was not about her. I was really pissed at myself by not winning the game from the breakpoint and then got empty with my emotions and deep in my thoughts, that I was not even focusing on what’s going on and who gives me the ball…” the tennis player said.

“All the ball kids were doing amazing as always at the open,” she stated.

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Putintseva drew criticism for her treatment of a ball girl during the match. In a series of interactions, the young girl first attempted to pass a ball to her, only for the player to let it hit her torso and bounce away.

When the ball girl made a second attempt, the throw bounced off the tennis player’s feet, and she simply turned her head to watch it roll away. This prompted the crowd to boo loudly as Putintseva caught the third ball without acknowledging the girl.

As the ball girl stretched her arms wide in an effort to help, Putintseva picked up one of the balls she had previously ignored. But she did not acknowledge the ball girl as she returned to the baseline. Footage captured the ball girl walking back to her station with a wry smile, shaking her head at the incident.