I’ve been shouting it out from the rooftops for years now. Whilst many knickers have been in a twist over Azarenka, Serena, Maria and anyone else with just an ounce of attitude, there has been a player by the name of Yulia Putintseva slowly appearing on the horizon. A player who threatens to usurp and destroy everything we know and love. She’s angry, she’s mean and she eats little children for breakfast. This is all factual information.
This week she finally arrived, qualifying for the Australian Open main draw before taking American sweetheart Christina McHale as her first victim. Aunt Pammy was on-hand to cover the final games of their contest, and the utter repulsion and disgust in the tone of her voice whilst recounting but a few of Putintseva’s innumerable antics is incredible, hilarious and only a sign of things to come. Don’t ever say I didn’t warn you, tennis world.
16 year-old Junior Yulia Putintseva, already infamous in tennis circles for taking to facebook to say “finally the bitch is retired” as news broke of Elena Dementieva’s retirement in addition to breaking her runner-up trophy after losing in the US Open junior finals, defeated Marta Domachowska 7-6(6) 6-2 to take home the second 25k Challenger title of her career.
The likes of Anastasia Rodionova and Tatiana Poutchek both are notorious as two of the most ill-behaved players on the WTA tour, but in reality, neither player has anything on this young Russian. She screams, she shouts, she smashes countless rackets, she intimidates linesmen, umpires and even ballkids, and her loud fistpumping combos like “DAVAI DAVAI C’MON DAVAI ALLEZ”, aimed straight at the opponent, have earned her yet more infamy in her young career.
And really, these videos don’t even begin do her and her psychopathic behaviour justice. My favourite description of her behaviour is a report from zootennis a couple years back after a loss in juniors to Gabriela Dabrowski.
Although I wasn’t there earlier, the screams from the always vocal and demonstrative Putintseva could be heard many courts away, and I was told that she was warned about taunting by a roving official earlier. The usual arguments about line calls, which were made all the more frustrating by the gusty winds, eventually led to an official being permanently stationed on the court.
With Putintseva serving at 5-6, 0-30, Dabrowski was overruled on a baseline call, but won the replayed point to make it 0-40. Putintseva was facing three match points, but thanks to some tentative play by Dabrowski, who made three errors, the 14-year-old Russian brought it back to deuce. She won the next point with a forehand winner but Dabrowski responded with a winner of her own to take it back to deuce. A Putintseva backhand into the net gave Dabrowski match point No. 4, and when Putintseva’s shot landed what appeared to be wide, she erupted, screaming and throwing her racquet into the fence. What she didn’t realize was that the official had overruled Dabrowski’s call, and because the official was telling the Canadian that, she failed to see the racquet toss. Another official near the court had seen it however, and stepped forward to tell the on-court official what he had seen.
The tournament referee was called, and because Putintseva had already received a point penalty for misconduct, the second infraction was a game penalty. When the decision was quickly made and announced to the crowd that had gathered alongside court 3, the majority of spectators seemed satisfied with the verdict. The two girls did not exchange a handshake at the net.
Of course that doesn’t really do her justice either, which is why although she is a crazy little girl I’m actually quite glad she is winning now. It’s going to be a glorious day when she finally breaks onto the WTA tour and the world gets to watch her in full flow. I’m expecting tomatoes to be thrown and crowds of tennis fans to chase her out of the stadium with pitchforks and torches in hand. Don’t disappoint me, people.
