France’s Lois Boisson has poked fun at a controversial comment from her opponent during their match on Tuesday at the Rouen Open.
The world No.303 was taking on Britain’s Harriet Dart in the first round of the tournament, which she comprehensively won 6-0, 6-3. During one of the changeovers, Dart was caught on camera speaking about the 21-year-old and said to the umpire ‘“Can you ask her to put on deodorant? She smells really bad.”
Dart’s remark drew a lot of backlash on social media with some criticizing her behavior and sportsmanship. A few hours after their match, the Brit issued an apology for her comment and insisted she had a lot of ‘respect‘ for Boisson.
“It was a comment made in the heat of the moment, and I truly regret it. It’s not the way I want to behave, and I take full responsibility,” Dart wrote on Instagram. “I have a lot of respect for Lois and the way she competed today. I’ll learn from this and move on.”
Boisson, who has been ranked as high as 152nd in the world and has one WTA 125 title to her name, appears to be unperturbed by the incident after making fun of it on her social media account. In her Instagram story, she uploaded an edited photo of herself holding a bottle of Dove deodorant along with the caption “@Dove apparently need a collab.”
Bopission is playing in her first WTA event since returning to the Tour following a nine-month absence due to injury. Coming into this week, she has played five tournaments on the lower-level ITF circuit this season, winning a trophy at a W35 event in Terrassa, Spain.
She will play either fifth seed Moyuka Uchijima or Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova in the second round later this week in Rouen.
In this year’s tournament, four out of the eight seeded players have crashed out in the first round with the highest of those being fourth seed McCartney Kessler. Alycia Parks, Lucia Bronzetti and Sonay Kartal have also been knocked out.
