A stunning brawl broke out between two junior tennis players when the loser slapped his opponent after losing in the first round of an ITF juniors tournament in Ghana on Monday.
French tennis star Michal Kouame faced Ghana’s Raphael Nii Ankrah on centre court in Accra. The 15-year-old appeared to go in for the handshake before slapping Ankrah in the face, shocking those in attendance.
It is unclear why Kouame slapped Ankrah, although it is likely the teenager was frustrated at losing in the first round. The incident sparked an all-out brawl, with footage captured and posted on social media.
The videos were initially shared by the Functional Tennis podcast, who then posted in an Instagram story on Tuesday that they had decided to remove the clip. Instead, a Ghanaian tennis coach acquired the footage and posted it to Twitter.
Tournament director Roger Crawford wrote a lengthy message on Facebook addressing the incident: “As many of you know, I am the Tournament Organizer and Tournament Director for the International Tennis Federation Junior World Tour Events in Accra, Ghana.
“This afternoon I witnessed the most barbaric incident on a tennis court. I don’t think I have the words to explain what happened. The video says it all. The perpetrator is a player from France and he assaulted a player from Ghana. My immediate response was to disqualify the perpetrator from the doubles event. I went further to recommend to the ITF to disqualify him entirely from next week’s event as well.
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“Ghanaians are a very peace loving people. No wonder the kid from Ghana did not retaliate. As the tournament director, I called in the stadium security who held the perpetrator for some time. I met with the Ghanaian player and his team and they decided not to press charges.
"Therefore I had no option than to let the perpetrator free although I brought in the Police. This is without a doubt the worst incident I have witnessed on a tennis court in my whole playing, coaching and now my admin/ officiating career. NO! This is not the way tennis is played in Ghana.”
In the end, Ankrah beat Kouame 6-2 6-7 7-6 to advance to the second round, where he will face compatriot Nii Nortey Dowuona. Kouame was the No. 1 seed heading into the tournament - which might explain his poor reaction to defeat - and he is expected to be sanctioned.
Ankrah will return to the court on Tuesday for a doubles match against Italy’s Davide Brunetti and France’s Mickael Kaouk.
