It's nuts. Does anyone know much about Barbat's father? Has he had past issues? Thread title is a bit wrong, Barbat was playing Danielle Harmsen. Elise was watching the match as a spectator cheering Danielle on.
Hopefully Elise will be ok Hard to imagine we'll be seeing Karen Barbat playing again for a long time.
Karen Barbat's dad Mihai Barbat was stopped by security guards at the 2010 e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open (a.k.a. Wozniacki Open) when he tried to drive away from the venue while he was drunk. He was then arrested by the police for drunk driving. Maybe that's why Mihai and Karen Barbat was not at the 2011 Wozniacki Open.
At the 2010 Wozniacki Open Karen's 13-year-old younger brother Alex Barbat who's also a talented tennis player himself was Karen's on-court coach. I was surpsied to see such a young on-court coach and not her usual coach, her dad. But maybe he had already been arrested for drunk driving and that's why her brother was coaching her instead?
As the second highest ranked Danish player Karen would normally be sure to get a MD WC or qualifier WC but she was not even playing the qualifiers this year.
The Barbat's stopped all co-operation with the Danish tennis federation years ago when Mihai Barbat has some disagreements with the federation. But Karen has since strated playing Fed Cup for Denmark in 2011 under the Danish Fed Cup captain Michael Mortensen who's also Li Na's new coach.
Mihai Barbat is originally from Romania but left for Denmark as a refugee. 3 years later Karen was born in Denmark. She first picked up tennis when they traveled back to visit Romania when she was 6. The German minority in Transylvania has a tennis complex where their kids plays and a friend invited Mihai to bring along Karen and this is where Karen tried to play tennis for the first time.
Yeah that must've been it. So it was a default after all....
What the hell... cannot imagine what happened there. Karen Barbat's father punched Elise because she was cheering for Daniëlle ? Omg, that's just out of the world....
I doubt it. This isn't like some typical bar fight.
-It was a grown man assaulting a young woman.
-There were multiple witnesses and the identity of the assailant is not in question.
-The police would have leverage- they could threaten to ban his daughter for life from tennis if he doesn't plead guilty to assault.
I really doubt he gets away with it, but if somehow the tennis associations(whatever their names are) let him, then fans should boycott any tournament Barbat plays in the future.
Karen Barbat's dad has made headlines before for his bad behaviour. During last year's Copenhagen Open he was expelled from the tournament and later picked up by the police due to some trouble he was causing. I can't remember the details of the incident but I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved...
This is horrible. Almost sounds like they need to screen some of these parents before they can actually watch a match. Because some of these fathers have really been low class clowns. The fact that you feel it is ok to cause someone bodily harm over a game is just too sad for words.
Yesss, that is the proper way the thread should be titled. Obviously I knew what the title meant anyway but definitely is not correct in grammar - but who am I to judge.
Back to the main point. Any form of violence is unacceptable. The police need to get into action and hopefully in the WTA too. Realy hope Elise can cover well.
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