After assaulting Dutch tennis player Elise Tamaela at a challenger tournament in Versmold, Germany on Monday, Mihai Barbat (with his daughter Karen in tow) decided his best move was to run from the scene of the crime as soon as possible.
Though she may be evading German authorities as they flee in their car from Versmold to the Danish-German border, 19-year-old Danish tennis player Karen Barbat feels little need to avoid the media, or to deny that the assault occurred.
Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet spoke to the 19-year-old Danish player via her cell phone as her father sped toward north the border.
Translated from the original Danish:
"As I saw it, a group of people sat in the grandstands cheering a lot for my opponent. They irritated me a lot and I tried again and again to ask them to quiet down a bit. But they just laughed," Karen Barbat told ekstrabladet.dk via phone from Germany.
"The last thing I remember is one of the players provoking my father. She pushes him, and it's true that he came to respond in an unfortunate way. He gives her a blow," admits Barbat.
"But I do not remember anymore, and I have no more time," she says, while a male voice raises his voice in the background.Here ends the conversation, when Karen Barbat hangs up.
The Ekstra Bladet report was published at 1:37 p.m. in Central European Time (7:37 a.m. EST). Versmold, where the incident took place, is roughly 362 km (225 miles) from the Danish border.
Stay tuned to SB Nation's tennis coverage at SBNation.com/tennis as well as on Twitter, @DailyForehand .
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