PARIS — In a troubling turn of events, Turkish tennis sensation Zeynep Sönmez was forced to withdraw from a women’s doubles match at the French Open on Friday. The incident occurred as she sprinted for a ball, tripping violently over a small advertising board placed at the back of the court.
Fortunately, she only suffered minor injuries but expressed a strong desire for the boards to be eliminated entirely.
“I walked off the court with two stitches and a bruised knee. Thankfully, it wasn’t worse,” Sönmez tweeted. “Must we wait for a serious injury before removing these boards? Player safety must be our priority.”
The fall took place on Court No. 6. As she lunged for a high ball, Sönmez pulled out of a two-handed backhand due to the steep bounce and inadvertently clipped the board, tumbling face-first into the protective sheeting along the fence.
While on the ground, her doubles partner Tatjana Maria and their opponents, Dayana Yastremska and Anhelina Kalinina, rushed to check on her.
Although Sönmez managed to get back up, she was unable to continue, leading her and Maria to retire from the match while down 2-0 in the first set.
A similar incident affected British player Katie Boulter in her second-round singles match against Anastasia Potapova, where she stumbled over the same type of board—displaying the name of tournament partner Lacoste—while attempting a shot.
“THESE NEED TO GO,” Boulter voiced on X on Friday. “I got lucky last night, but what about next time?”
When asked if the advertising boards would be removed, tournament organizers stated they had discussed the matter with the umpire and were awaiting further instructions.
Four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek emphasized the need for a solution.
“Clearly, when these incidents happen, action is required. There are definitely other ways to enhance visibility,” Swiatek remarked. “It can be tricky to judge. On clay, we sometimes need more space as the balls tend to fly higher, and we can utilize the court more with spin.”
Swiatek asserted that repositioning the boards could effectively resolve the issue.
“I hope they’ll find a better location or alternative advertising methods,” she added. “Safety is definitely at stake.”
Following her third-round victory on Friday, Marta Kostyuk shared her own near-miss in a previous match against Katie Volynets, where she opted not to chase down a tricky ball.
“It’s unfortunate. I had a moment in my last match where (Volynets) hit a deep lob, and I was way back,” she recounted. “I’d rather lose the point than risk an injury. I genuinely feel for Zeynep, and I hope her injuries aren’t serious. This has been happening too often.”
