Wimbledon star disqualified from tournament after ultra-rare violation

A player at Wimbledon has been disqualified from the girls' singles event at the tournament after committing an ultra-rare rule violation.

Ida Wobker, 15, was 0-6, 5-5 down in the first round against Romania's Maria Valentina Pop when she hit the ball out past the baseline with the score at 30-30.

The German was furious at her unforced error and threw her racquet down to the ground, with it bouncing up and landing in the crowd. Wobker immediately walked over to the section of the crowd to apologise.

The match was then paused, as per The Athletic, with a second referee subsequently appearing on court to discuss a possible sanction with the chair umpire and the other referee.

Although, thankfully, nobody in the crowd was hurt by the loose racquet, the second referee decided to give Wobker a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The 15-year-old was therefore defaulted, and game, set and match was declared in favour of Pop.

You can see the incident below.

Why Wobker was defaulted from Wimbledon girls singles

The regulations of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) state that players 'shall not violently or with anger hit, kick or throw a racquet or other equipment within the precincts of the tournament site'.

"For the purpose of this Rule, abuse of racquets or equipment is defined as intentionally and violently destroying or damaging racquets or equipment or intentionally and violently hitting the net, court, umpire's chair or other fixture during a match out of anger or frustration."

Wobker, who is currently ranked at world number 24 in the ITF junior rankings, came into Wimbledon in solid form after winning a J500 tournament in Cairo back in April.

That promoted her to a career-high ranking of 16, but she couldn't capitalise on that momentum with a difficult start to her first round match against Pop.

Wobker re-shared a post to her Instagram story on Saturday night which read: "S**t happens, you learn from it!"

Her opponent Pop will now go on to play British wildcard Danielle Britton in round two.

There is other British interest in the form of 18-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic, who was given a wildcard to compete in the main draw of Wimbledon before losing to 11th seed Belinda Bencic in round one.

Stojsavljevic won the junior singles title at the 2024 US Open and also reached the doubles final alongside fellow Brit Mimi Xu at Wimbledon in the same year.

Much like in the main draw at Wimbledon, however, Stojsavljevic and Britton are rare success stories for British tennis, with eight out of the 10 Brits who entered the girls' singles draw having lost their first round matches.

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The main British interest in that main draw, in either men's and women's singles, is Arthur Fery, who is the sole remaining Brit left in the tournament after he reached the fourth round.