Georgian born-American Anna Tatishvili has been stripped off of her entire first-round earnings at Roland Garros, an amount of €46,000, as umpire determined that she didn’t put enough effort in her performance during her 55-minute loss to Maria Sakkari in the opening round of the tournament.
The 29-year-old Tatishvili, currently unranked, won just one game against Sakkari and exactly one third of all the points in the match, 31 to her opponent’s 62. It’s surprising that Tatishvili even showed up in Paris, as she had not competed since October 2017, when she reached the semifinals of a $25K event, while her last major appearance was a first-round loss at the 2017 Australian Open.
The former world No.50 gained entry into Roland Garros 2019 with her protected ranking of No.107, but she was required to be fit enough to produce the level of play expected from a professional athlete. The match referee concluded that Tatishvili had not lived up to that standard.
Nine WTA players have been fined at Roland Garros so far, but you can see that Tatishvili’s fine is the biggest by far. (source: Tennis.com)
