French Open: Boris Becker and Tim Henman react to Lorenzo Musetti kicking ball at line-judge in shocking incident during Roland-Garros quarter-final

Musetti, the world No. 8, was in quarter-final action on Court Philippe-Chatrier against Frances Tiafoe, the 15th seed, and was a set up and a break down in the second set.

The Italian was preparing to serve to stay in the second set as a stray ball bounced out of his hand and onto the clay. He kicked it, accidentally hitting a line-judge, striking her in the chest.

Musetti apologised and received a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct from the chair umpire Timo Janzen.

In the TNT Sports studio afterwards, Henman, who himself was disqualified from a Grand Slam for a similar incident, said that the Italian would have been unfortunate to have been handed a default – like Novak Djokovic was in 2020 at the US Open, when he struck a line-judge with a ball during his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreno Busta.

“By the letter of the law, if you hit or kick a ball away in frustration, and it hits a ball-boy, line-judge, or umpire, that can be a disqualification,” Henman explained.

“When you look at that, the umpire could have interpreted that as a disqualification. However, if Musetti was disqualified for that, Musetti would feel very unlucky and aggrieved.

“When you’re kicking a ball away, you’ve either got to be a better footballer and kick it in the right direction, or you are risking something like that.”

The incident led Henman to look back at his own misfortune, when he was disqualified from the men’s doubles at Wimbledon for hitting a ball-girl with a ball that he had hit away in frustration.

“[This is] coming from a person who got disqualified a long time ago,” Henman said.

“I was playing doubles with Jeremy Bates, and we were 4-1 up in the third-set tie-break. I’d like to say we were actually about to win the match.

“It wasn’t in a fit of anger, nor was I throwing my toys out of the pram, but our opponents had hit two lucky shots and I had a ball in my pocket.

“I was turning away to walk back to the baseline to return, and I hit the ball away in frustration and wasn’t really looking.

“The ball-girl was on the other side of the net and popped her head up to run to the other side and I hit her in the head. That’s a default.

“I was begging [the umpire]. Come on, just let me off. That was my fault. I accepted responsibility and bought the ballgirl a nice bunch of flowers the next day. We’ve been friends ever since.”

Fellow TNT Sports expert Boris Becker said that umpire Janzen did an “excellent job” in not disqualifying Musetti, telling those reacting angrily on social media to “calm down”.

“The German umpire did an excellent job today,” Becker said. “You can’t disqualify Musetti over something like that. The warning was justified, but you can’t compare it to Djokovic.

“The internet needs to calm down. Everyone’s trying to be holier than the Pope. But let’s keep things in perspective. It was a warning, not a disqualification.”