French tennis player Elliot Benchetrit landed himself in controversy after asking a ball girl to peel a banana for him at the Australian Open.

The 21-year-old was up against Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan in the final round of qualifying over the weekend, when – during one of the changeovers – he cheekily handed over a banana to the ball girl.

Chair umpire John Blom was quick to intervene, asking the ball girl to give it back to him, triggering a heated exchange with Benchetrit.

Blom’s decision was widely appreciated on social media, with former star Martina Navratilova writing: “What’s next- grapes?#entitlement. John did the right thing, that’s for sure.”

Benchetrit, however, wasn’t happy with the 33-second video surfacing online.

“That video is really useless and it’s not even showing a little part of what happened!” he wrote. “Poor guys, social media take your stupidity to an other level!”

Benchetrit, who went on to defeat Popko 4-6 6-2 -3, is scheduled to face Yuichi Sugita of Japan in the first round on Tuesday.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO OF THE INCIDENT