This s—t is bananas! French tennis player Elliot Benchetrit came under fire for seeking a ball girl’s assistance in peeling his banana.
The moment occurred at the Australian Open when Benchetrit, 21, took a snack break. In a video posted to Twitter on Sunday, January 19, by tennis reporter Alex Theodoridis, the ball girl is shown approaching the athlete with a banana. Benchetrit then appeared to be explaining that he needed the worker’s help to peel the fruit. She looked behind her and then handed him the banana before walking off.
Benchetrit’s face appeared to be met with shock thereafter. He was then seen biting the top of the banana in an attempt to open it himself.
The reporter noted via Twitter that umpire John Blom “stepped in” and “told” off Benchetrit.
Benchetrit has since clarified what happened in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, January 21. “At 6-5 in the final set, during the changeover, I asked the ball girl to peel the banana for me as I had put some cream on my hands in order not to sweat,” he told the publication. “She had done it once before at the beginning of the match. But the second time the chair umpire stepped in and told me that the ball girl was not my slave and I had to peel the banana myself.”
The French star continued, “I could not believe that the umpire said that and I find incredible how this situation got out of control on social media without people knowing what really happened on court.”
For the most part, Twitter users did not respond kindly to the footage of Benchetrit. One person pointed out that the ball girl is “not a servant” and is “there to do a job,” while another individual noted that the athlete “is beyond rude.” A third user argued that there’s “no reason to crucify” Benchetrit because it’s “hard to tell how the exchange went down,” whereas a fourth person suggested that they “doubt the ball girl was offended.”
“Imagine being a ballboy and this tennis player treat you as if you’re their on-court personal assistant,” a fifth individual tweeted. “The next time they want the ball, throw it in their face to make a point that that’s your job, not giving them water and towel or peeling their banana or throwing [out] their trash.”
Benchetrit won three qualifying matches in the Australian Open. However, his run in the international tournament concluded after he lost to Japanese player Yūichi Sugita on Tuesday.
