World Tennis number 1 Novak Djokovic has apologised for hitting a line judge with a ball at the US Open, saying he is "extremely sorry for creating her such stress".
The world number one was disqualified from his fourth-round match against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta.
Djokovic had just had his serve broken, took a ball out of his pocket and hit it behind him, striking the woman in her throat.
After a lengthy discussion, Djokovic was defaulted by tournament officials at Flushing Meadows.
He will lose all ranking points earned at the US Open and will forfeit the prize money he had won at the tournament.
He could also be fined for the incident.
His exit ended his hopes of winning an 18th Grand Slam title and narrowing the gap on Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the race to finish with the most men's major wins.
[Source: BBC]
