{"id":703573,"date":"2026-05-30T04:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703573\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T04:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:29:09","slug":"iga-swiatek-urges-french-open-officials-to-move-advertising-boards-after-zeynep-sonmezs-nasty-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703573\/","title":{"rendered":"Iga \u015awi\u0105tek urges French Open officials to move advertising boards after Zeynep S\u00f6nmez’s nasty fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkey’s Zeynep S\u00f6nmez tripped over an advertising sign and crashed into a wall while chasing the ball in her doubles match at the French Open on Friday, injuring her leg and bringing her campaign to an early end.<\/p>\n

S\u00f6nmez, who was partnering German Tatjana Maria in their second round match against Ukrainian duo Anhelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska, ran towards the back of Court Six as she chased a high ball at 2-0 down in the opening set.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old looked to have given up her chase as the ball bounced over her head but she tripped on a small sign that served as an advertisement for a sponsor and fell face first towards the wall.<\/p>\n

Although S\u00f6nmez reacted quickly to avoid a more serious injury to her head and face, she stayed down and clutched her bruised right leg, as her teammate and opponents ran to her.<\/p>\n

After returning to her seat at the centre of the court and following a check by the tournament doctor, S\u00f6nmez pulled out and the contest came to an abrupt end after 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

S\u00f6nmez is a popular player on the women’s tour and had won the hearts of fans at the Australian Open in January, when she rushed to the aid of a ball girl who fainted<\/a> in the punishing Melbourne heat during her singles match.<\/p>\n

She received the support of four-time French Open winner Iga \u015awi\u0105tek, who called for a reaction from tournament organisers.<\/p>\n

\"Iga<\/p>\n

Four-time French Open champion Iga \u015awi\u0105tek (pictured) also called for tournament organisers to move the advertising hoardings. (Getty Images\/Foto Olimpik\/NurPhoto)<\/p>\n

“It’s hard sometimes to judge,” Swiatek said.<\/p>\n

“Obviously on clay courts, we need more space sometimes because the balls are flying higher, and you can use the court a bit more with the spin and everything.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“It’s a shame, and I hope they’re going to put them [signs] in a different place or just put the advertising in a different way there, because it’s not safe for sure.”<\/p>\n

Organisers said they had taken feedback from players into account and were communicating with them on the issue.<\/p>\n

“The stadium complex was modernised during the 2018-19 season,” said a statement from the organisers.<\/p>\n

“All courts currently exceed the international circuit minimum requirements regarding the distance between the baseline and the back of the court, which is set at 6.4 metres.<\/p>\n

“However, the tournament’s priority remains the well-being of the players taking part. With this in mind, and based on our own observations, adjustments are currently being made to the area around the playing surface.”<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkey’s Zeynep S\u00f6nmez tripped over an advertising sign and crashed into a wall while chasing the ball in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,1805,2636,24143,85,747,63949],"class_list":["post-703573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-french-open","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-roland-garros","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-zeynep-sonmez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}