Distractions in tennis are nothing new: the pop of champagne bottles at Wimbledon, ball kids taking a spill and apparently crying babies at the Cincinnati Open.
In a third-round match between WTA world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and British No. 1 Emma Raducanu Monday in Cincinnati, Raducanu was distracted by a constant cry from a child in the crowd. In a critical moment of the match, she paused her serve to take it up with the chair umpire.
"It's been like 10 minutes," she said.
"It's a child, do you want me to send the child out of the stadium?" The chair umpire responded without much she could do to stop the distraction.
"It's a child do you want me to send the child out of the stadium?" 😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/7f1SgakQez
— Owen (@kostekcanu) August 11, 2025
The crowd hilariously responded in support of that action which caused Raducanu to laugh, acknowledging the patrons agreed with her. Here's a longer clip where you can hear the cries at the beginning:
Oh my goodness how did I miss this? Raducanu complaining about a baby crying... umpire shouts back "what do you want me to do chuck the child out of the stadium?!" 😂pic.twitter.com/7RpVZAZtQP
— Pavvy G (@pavyg) August 12, 2025
The chair umpire noted that she would make a call but the match needed to continue for the moment, which brought applause from the crowd. Raducanu ended up winning the point after a miss from Sabalenka at the net.
In a long battle, Sabalenka won the match 7–6, 4–6, 7–6 to advance to the round of 16 where she will play Jessica Bouzas Maneiro for an opportunity to head to the quarterfinal. Sabalenka won the Cincinnati Open last year.
Any parent can understand the struggle trying to get their child to calm down when nothing is working, especially at a quiet outing like a tennis match. But, in the child's defense, they probably just wanted to get out of the pounding summer heat.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Crying Child Led to Hilarious Moment Between Emma Raducanu and Chair Umpire.
