WTA stars clash in X-rated outburst

It is the second time in a year that Yulia Putintseva has been booed by the crowd.

Yulia Putintseva and Maria Sakkari traded verbal insults to one another in a foul-mouthed argument following their match at the Bad Homburg Open.

Sakkari won 7-5, 7-6 in the Round of 32 match but as the Greek went to shake her opponent’s hand, Putintseva laid into what she perceived as dramatics.

Pretending to do a little bow and mimicking Sakkari, Putintseva was then told to be “like a human being” to which she angrily replied “I was being like a human being. Look at yourself”

That remark was the lighting of the fuse with Sakkari following Putintseva to her chair as the argument continued.

The two argued for a short while before Putintseva called Sakkari an “a**hole” as she walked away. Sakkari turned back around and said “Nobody likes you. When you shake hands, look the other person in the eye.”

Putintseva then pretended to bow down to her opponent as the crowd booed the very public example of poor sportsmanship.

“Nobody likes you!” Tense moments at the net after Maria Sakkari beat Yulia Putintseva pic.twitter.com/TsvwgBaYiK — Sky Sports Tennis (@SkySportsTennis) June 22, 2025

It is the fourth time the pair have met each other, with Sakkari having won three of those.

Sakkari, ranked No. 86, will play the winner of the match between No. 8 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and Swiss Belinda Bencic next.

It is not the first time that Kazakhstani Putintseva has lost her temper on the court following an incident at the US Open last year.

On her way to her defeat by Jasmine Paolini, Putintseva was tossed two balls from the ballgirl but ignored them, instead staring blankly at the ballgirl. A third ball was thrown to which Putintseva did catch.

As a result, she was loudly booed by the crowd and later apologised for her “terrible behaviour”, stating she was “p***ed” at herself rather than the ball girl.

She did however say the world was judging her on just a short clip.

“It’s kind of scary the way the world can judge someone from just a three-second video, that someone posts from one side, without seeing the rest on what was really happening,” she wrote on her social media.

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“I was just playing tennis and lost a tough game, which was very close (in my opinion) to turn that match around. After the game (as you can see on a pic) I got very much disappointed and was almost crying, that I didn’t do better.

“At this time the girl was giving me the ball, which I didn’t even notice or so, because I was deep in my thoughts… I was not trying to humiliate her (or anyone) by not taking this ball that she was giving to me.

“I didn’t do anything disrespectful to anyone at this particular moment. I do apologise, if this girl thinks that it was something towards her. (And btw her name is Kate, very nice girl, which understood that it was nothing towards her).

“I can’t say that I am perfect all my career. I am getting angry on court, p***ed, saying stupid stuff and curse like no tomorrow sometimes. Guilty for that. But I did never put myself “on top” of someone. That’s just not me at all.”

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