A poor (but also incredible) choice of words by an Australian Open commentator has left her co-commentator in tatters, and for good reason.
Just a couple of games into the matchup between Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindi and Latvia’s Jeļena Ostapenko, one commentator noted that Ostapenko could really hit the ball with some power and send it far back on her opponent’s side of the court, which was causing trouble for Baindl.
An astute observation for sure, but it was worded in probably the worst possible way.
“It’ll be tough for the Ukrainian,” she started. “How do you respond to deep, hard balls?”
There it is.
Her co-worker made a valiant effort in responding with professionalism and composure but lost all sense of both barely a sentence in.
“You’ve got to really try and stay nice and low,” she managed to say before cracking up. Once the laughter begins it soon turns to silence - either their mics were cut or they had to step away.
Comments on the TikTok are having an absolute ball of a time talking about the commentary blunder.
“I think the response is you have to get that checked by a doctor,” wrote one person.
“Serious ‘don’t laugh during church’ energy right here,” another commenter added.
“I just know the one who said it was giving a huge side-eye waiting for the other to laugh,” added a third, giving some quality imagery to the situation.
If you are interested, Ostapenko rode her deep hard balls to the finish for an easy victory, winning 6 - 3, 6 - 0. She then beat the seventh-seeded Coco Gauff 7 - 6, 7 - 3 meaning she gets to face Kazahkstan’s Elena Rybakina in the quarter-final.
Ostapenko won the French Open back in 2017, becoming the first unseeded woman to win the French Open since 1933 - the power of deep, hard balls.
