‘That could have been nasty!’ – Umpire Aurelie Tourte reacts quickly to avoid mishit return from Lorenzo Musetti

Umpire Aurelie Tourte showed quick reactions to avoid a potentially “nasty” incident after Lorenzo Musetti mishit a ball towards her at the French Open.

With Stefanos Tsitsipas serving in the first set on Court Philippe Chatrier, Musetti fired a forehand return towards the umpire’s chair.

Tourte managed to stick her hand up to block the ball as it travelled towards her position.

“Could have been nasty,” said Chris Bradman on Eurosport commentary.

Umpire Arnaud Gabas suffered a fractured eye socket when he was struck by a ball that Denis Shapovalov smashed in anger during a Davis Cup match against Great Britain in 2017.

Musetti received from 4-1 down in the first set to move two sets up against fourth seed Tsitsipas.

Musetti was in a similar position against Novak Djokovic last year at the French Open but couldn’t close out the win and retired in the fifth set as he couldn’t “win a point”.

“It’s not an injury,” he said afterwards.

“It’s, well, just a little bit of cramps and a little bit of low back pain. I was not anymore able to win a point, and so was not really…grateful also for the crowd that was there, so I decided to retire.

“There was no chance that I could win a point, so I decided to retire because I think it was the best thing to do it.”

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