The 31-year-old Begu, ranked No.63 in the world, threw her racquet down in frustration after falling down a break in the deciding third set. It bounced off her seating area and into the courtside seats on Court 13 at Roland Garros.

The racquet did not seem to hit anyone but caused a child to cry out loudly. Play was halted as the chair umpire called on the supervisor to intervene.

Begu was let off with a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct and did not let the incident affect her play as she beat Alexandrova 6-7 (7-3) 6-3 6-4 to book a meeting with French wildcard Leolia Jeanjean.

The Romanian appeared immediately remorseful following the incident, and after completing the victory she hugged and consoled the child and picked him up to pose for pictures.

"It's an embarrassing moment for me, so I don't want to talk too much about it. I just want to apologise," Begu said at her post-match news conference.

"My whole career, I didn't do something like this, and I feel really bad and sorry. So I'm just going to say again: sorry for the incident."

Asked whether she thought she would be defaulted, she said: "You hit the clay with the racquet, but you never expect (it) to fly that much. It was, as I said, an embarrassing moment for me, and I just want to end it and not talk about it."

Tennis fans on social media questioned the decision to allow Begu to continue playing, pointing at Novak Djokovic's disqualification from the 2020 US Open after the Serb inadvertently hit a line judge with a ball after losing a point.

Germany's Alexander Zverev was also kicked out of the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco in February after he repeatedly smashed his racquet against the umpire's chair following a defeat in doubles.

With AP

Australian Associated Press