Teenage Wimbledon star is disqualified after mistakenly launching her racquet into the crowd

A young Wimbledon player stood no chance of defeat in his Championship debut after accidentally throwing his racket into the crowd with a backhand off-court.

Germany’s rising star, 15-year-old Ida Wobker, fought against Romanian Maria Valentina Pop in the second set of the first round match after losing the first set 6-0, and came back with a long shot of 30 strokes to the ball with a score of 5-5.

Frustrated by Pop’s struggle to get into the service game, Wobker slammed his racket onto the grass, letting go of the handle.

However, the force with which the racket was thrown caused it to bounce across the grass into the stands and onlookers, instead of remaining on Court 11.

The first referee immediately stopped the match and called a supervisor to the field and after reviewing the incident for a few minutes, the match was called ‘game, set and match’.

While there is no hard and fast rule as to how a player can be defaulted for throwing a racket or ball in anger, the safety of the people involved often comes down to whether harsh punishment will be imposed.

The 15-year-old German player was defeated in the girls’ draw midway through the second set on Saturday

Novak Djokovic became infamous at the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting the line judge in the throat by hitting the ball coming from behind him.

Despite profuse and quick-thinking apologies from the Serbian series champion, his time at Flushing Meadows was reversed.

Five years later, Lorenzo Musetti escaped the same punishment in the French Open quarter-final against Frances Tiafoe when he hit the line judge with a loose ball and hit her in the chest.

Tiafoe described the decision to continue the tie as ‘funny’ after the incident, while after his victory Musetti admitted he was ‘a little scared’ as he did not want to hurt the referee.

Wobker, ranked 24th in the ITF junior rankings, accepted her suspension with minimal fuss and later reposted the opinion of former German professional Barbara Rittner, who mentored the youngster.

‘(poop emoji) happens (female shrug emoji) you learn from it!’ Rittner posted it on his Instagram story, referencing the incident.

When contacted for comment by the Athletic, the Wimbledon Umpires Office confirmed that a default decision had been made against Wobker after her loose racket struck the crowd.

However, no one in the crowd was harmed in the incident.