Canadian Open star explains umpire handshake snub after two-year break

Jennifer Brady took to Twitter to apologise for snubbing the umpire as she made a profitable return to the Canadian Open. The former world No 13 has been sidelined with a knee harm for 2 years and solely returned to the WTA Tour final week. And her time away from the tour made her overlook to shake fingers with the official after she shocked world No 20 Jelena Ostapenko.

Brady loved a full-circle second in Montreal on Monday as she defeated Ostapenko 7-6(7) 0-6 7-6(8) in her opening match. It got here two years after she was compelled to retire to the Latvian of their Cincinnati match again in 2021, and he or she didn’t play once more till just some weeks in the past after battling a knee challenge.

The 28-year-old returned to motion on the Granby Challenger three weeks in the past and solely performed in her first WTA occasion seven days in the past in Washington, along with her victory over Ostapenko marking her fifth match in two years. But amongst all the thrill, Brady forgot to shake fingers with the chair umpire.

The former Australian Open finalist reposted a video of her victory on Twitter with a rollercoaster emoji earlier than realising she snubbed the official. “Ok this is really embarrassing,” she added in a follow-up tweet.

“I have learned that I forgot to shake the umpires hand (forgive me, I’m still shaking off some rust).” But compatriot Madison Keys defended the previous world No 13, noting that she hadn’t performed a match for the reason that Covid pandemic when gamers didn’t shake fingers with the officers.

“It’s ok last time we played was Covid so you’re just a little behind the times,” the world No 3 responded with a laughing emoji. It was a turbulent match for Brady, who misplaced eight video games in a row at one level and saved two match factors en path to the victory.