Australian Open 2020: Tennis player who told ball girl to peel his banana told off by umpire

Umpire John Blom was not impressed when World No 229 Elliot Benchetrit instructed an Australian Open ball girl to peel his banana for him

A tennis player received a telling-off from an umpire at the Australian Open for asking a ball girl to peel a banana for him.

World No 229 Elliot Benchetrit was sat courtside in between sets during the Grand Slam qualifier when he was presented with a banana by one of the tournament’s ball girls.

Rather than peel it himself he instructed the ball girl to do it for him – much to the disgust of chair umpire John Blom.

The umpire stepped in – telling the ball girl to return the banana to Benchetrit for the Frenchman to peel himself.

Benchetrit could then be seen attempting to peel the fruit with his teeth, much to the confusion of all those watching on.

Not that banana-gate seemed to distract Benchetrit from the task at hand. He went on to win his final qualifier against Dmitry Popko 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will now play Japan’s Yūichi Sugita in the first round.