Australian Open 2018 Controversy: Coco Vandeweghe Shouts F***ING B***H to Opponent Timea Babos Over Bananas!

American player Coco Vandeweghe says the biggest misconception about her is that she is arrogant. Well, her mid-match tantrums on the opening day of Australian Open 2018 proved why she is labelled a high-headed, obnoxious and ill-mannered by commentators and tennis fans across the globe. During her first-round match against Timea Babos of Hungary, the tenth seed went bananas over not getting bananas as a snack! Yes, you read it right. The 26-year-old shared a heated exchange of words with the umpire and if that was not enough, Coco went on to smash her racquet and snarl an offensive curse at her opponent. The vile player was caught on the camera shouting, ‘F---ING B---H’ to Babos, who later dumped her in the opening match to advance at the Melbourne Park.

Vandeweghe is well-known for her racquet-smashing, foul-mouthing umpires and ugly outbursts. And once again, she showed her insufferable personality by disrespecting match official and abusing her rival player. Coco created the ruckus all because there were no bananas on the court.

In a match clip, Coco is seen arguing with umpire Fergus Murphy during the break. "How are they not on court? It's not my fault," she said. "I don't want to play under a different set of rules. I don't have to make myself uncomfortable because the court is ill-prepared."

The ill-tempered player blatantly refused to resume the match until she gets bananas to eat. After Murphy warned her to begin the match in allocated time, she accused him of being ‘rude’ and ignored his warnings. The video further shows a ballboy handing the player potassium-rich fruits after which Coco is heard asking the umpire, "They're here now, do you mind if I take a bite?"

"No, you don't have time," replied the umpire, which had no effect on Coco as she unpeeled a banana and began eating it. She was given two code violations for delay of game and unsportsmanlike conduct. After being penalized, she touched new low by mouthing curses to Timea Babos as if she was to blame for her actions. Her action promoted the umpire to hand her another code violation and deduct a point from her score.

Her disgusting attitude got blood boiling of tennis fans watching the match worldwide. They took on Twitter to make their displeasure heard and asking the organizers to reprimand Vandeweghe of her filthy actions. While nothing happened on that front, but the Hungarian player got a sweet revenge by ousting Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets 7-6, 6-2.

The American third seed later blamed her crazy on-court behaviour on a bout of flu but the reason hardly found any takers except her coach, Pat Cash. Former Australian player turned coach took the micro-blogging platform to convey his pride for his mentee. He wrote, ‘Coco Vandeweghe, I’m proud of you. After five days sick in bed with flu 1 x 20 min practice back to bed 1x30 min yesterday and only 4 /5 half meals in the week and struggling to breathe you still decided to get out and give it a real try. Now for the doubles with Laura Robson.’ Only he could defend and be proud of Coco’s disgusting act.

Coco’s disastrous performance coupled with vile behaviour added to American players’ miseries on the day. No. 5 seed and last year’s finalists, Venus Williams lost to unseeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens was bundled out by China’s Zhang Shuai. In men’s singles, World No. 16 was shown the door by Matthew Ebden of Australia ranked 231 in the world.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 16, 2018 05:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).