'Want me to send child out of stadium?' Mid-match drama steals spotlight as Emma Raducanu halts match over crying baby | WATCH

In a dramatic Cincinnati Open match with world no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Monday (August 12), British tennis sensation Emma Raducanu asked for the removal of a crying kid from the stadium. The incident came during a critical moment towards the conclusion of the third-set deciding set and resulted in a dramatic confrontation with the umpire before Sabalenka won the match.

The drama happened when Raducanu was serving 3-4 during the final set. She faced several break points while a child's crying broke her focus. Getting annoyed by the continued disturbance, she addressed the umpire and said, “It's been, like, 10 minutes.” The umpire reacted in shock, saying, "It's a kid. Do you want me to get the kid out of the stadium?" Raducanu's reaction was instructive - she just shrugged.

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The umpire tried to get to the bottom of things, saying, "I can call in, but we have to keep going for the moment," but the match was allowed to continue with the kid not being taken out of the stadium.

The tension escalated when certain fans expressed support for removal the child, with Raducanu nodding and smiling in concurrence. In spite of the disturbance, Raducanu displayed incredible calm. She managed to save her serve after a heated duel involving 13 deuces and held off four break points to tie the score at 4-4.

Jannik Sinner wins

Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner brushed aside multiple disruptions — from a power outage to a blaring alarm — to defeat Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (8/6). The top-seeded defending champion kept his composure against the world no. 35 from Canada, who struggled with eight double-faults in the opening set and 49 unforced errors overall. After falling behind early in the second set, Sinner fought back, saving a set point in the tiebreak before sealing victory with an ace to book his spot in the fourth round.

The match saw an unusual pause when the audio for the electronic line-calling system suddenly went down with Sinner leading 4-2, while earlier, both players had to contend with distracting flickering LED screens courtside.