CoCo Vandeweghe has 'banana drama' at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Fiery American tennis player CoCo Vandeweghe had a bizarre moment during her straight sets loss to Hungarian competitor, Timea Babos, at the Australian Open on Monday.

The women's world number 9 received a time violation for waiting "too long" for a banana mid-way through the match.

After going down in the first set 7-6 (7-4) in a gripping tie-break, Vandeweghe requested some courtside fruit.

"I asked for a banana at the end of the set... and they didn't have any on court," she said.

"So I tried to wait for it but the chair umpire deemed that it was not a good enough reason to wait and he gave me a time violation for trying to wait for a banana."

When the match resumed, Babos dominated play and took the second set 6-2.

Although the first round exit was considered a huge shock after the 26 year old made the semi-final of the tournament last year, Vandeweghe explained she had be suffering from illness in the lead up to the match.

"I've had the flu since about [last] Sunday," Vandeweghe said. "It's the first time I have been out of bed in four days. I tried my best... but she played really well." Enditem