FURIOUS Piers Morgan insists a ball-girl should have hurled a ball in Yulia Putintseva’s face as fans booed the tennis ace for “disgusting arrogance”.

Petulant Putintseva produced an extraordinary silent tantrum on her way to exiting the US Open against fifth seed Jasmine Paolini.

But viewers were appalled as the No 30 seed took out her frustration – in what looked a cruel, cringeworthy manner – on the young girl.

Putintseva was a set and 4-2 down in the second one when she stared at the ball girl disdainfully in a sullen strop without moving.

But it got worse – as she let one ball thrown to her by the youngster hit her torso, then allowed a second ball to bounce off her foot.

The girl remained calm and offered a third ball in the same time-honoured way – dropping it down from above her head.

Putintseva, albeit still appearing reluctant, finally moved to pick this ball up – perhaps “encouraged” by growing boos from around the crowd.

And she later apologised for her action on social media – insisting she had only been frustrated at herself amid a third-round defeat.

But it didn’t save her from a savaging online.

Broadcaster Morgan wrote: “Disgusting arrogance by @PutintsevaYulia – the ball girl should have thrown the 3rd one in her taunting face.”

Tennnis legend Boris Becker posted: “Who does Putintseva think she is … Terrible behaviour towards the ball girl !!!”

And fans were equally staggered by the unseemly antics.

One stormed: “Shame on her!!! Humiliation of a ball kid is the last thing you do on a tennis court..”

“Atrocious behaviour,” said another, while this verdict also spoke for many: “Very bad look. Putintseva should apologise. @usopen has a massive audience and making a ball girl look bad on such a public stage is inexcusable.”

The Moscow-born star, 29, then did indeed say sorry.

She posted: “I want to apologise to the ball girl for the way I was, when she was giving me balls.

“Honestly speaking it was not about her.

“I was really p***ed at myself by not winning the game from the break-point and then got empty with my emotions and deep in my thoughts, that I was not even focusing on whats going on and who gives me the ball…

“All the ball kids was doing amazing as always at the Open.”

One fan responded: “Well, duh, it was not about her! But it was still an unfortunate display of behaviour. Right move to apologise.”