A French tennis player was  told off by an umpire after asking a ballgirl to peel a banana during an Australian Open qualifying match.

Elliot Benchetrit, ranked No. 229 in the world, handed the banana to the ballgirl before umpire John Blom stepped in.

Benchetrit, whose fingers on his right hand were heavily taped up, then attempted to open the banana with his teeth.

Ball girls and boys are often asked to fetch water or towels during breaks in tennis matches. Peeling fruit seems out of the ordinary, however.

The incident brought back memories of American CoCo Vandeweghe at the 2018 Australian Open when she blew up about the lack of bananas available to her during her first-round loss to Timea Babos.

Vandeweghe complained about Hisense Arena being “ill prepared” when she had no bananas to eat before the start of the second set.

“How are they not on court? I mean, c’mon that’s not my fault,” she said during an argument with the chair umpire at Melbourne Park two years ago.

“Why do I have to play under a different set of rules. I don’t have to make myself uncomfortable because it’s ill prepared. I have needs and it’s not my fault that this court is ill prepared.”

At least Benchetrit eventually got his fruit, even if he did have to suffer the trauma of peeling the skin himself.

The Frenchman won through qualifying to reach the main draw of the opening grand slam of the year.

He will face Japan’s Yuichi Sugita, ranked 84th in the world, in the first round.

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