cnn
—
When nature calls, sometimes you just have to respond.
During his third-round match at the French Open, Australian tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis was left stunned after the referee apparently denied him going to the bathroom.
After losing the second set, Kokkinakis, who had taken a bathroom break after the first set, approached chair umpire Katarzyna Radwan-Cho.
“All I ask is that you try to urinate,” he told her. “Now you're telling me I have 50 seconds. Can you be realistic and give me something decent for once?
“Damn, we have two a match,” he added, referencing the number of bathroom breaks allowed in five sets. “Do you want me to urinate on the court?
“Is that what you want?”
Kokkinakis ultimately lost in four sets to Russian Karen Khachanov, who came back from a 4-1 deficit in the fourth set tiebreaker to close out the match and advance to the fourth round.
Former British player Laura Robson, who now works as a pundit for Eurosport, explained why Kokkinakis might have had trouble getting to the toilet and back in time.
“You have to run, but the problem is in [court] Simonne-Mathieu, the toilets are not as close as in Chatrier and Lenglen.
“You can see his frustration because he's trying to get there as quickly as possible, but physically it's not going to happen… but at least it didn't happen on the court.”
