Australian Open ball girl collapses on court with players rushing to her aid in scorching Melbourne heat
AN AUSTRALIAN OPEN ball girl collapsed on court as players rushed to her aid in the scorching Melbourne heat.
The youngster was helping out on Court 17 at Melbourne Park during the opening day of action on Monday.
But at a crucial point in the first-set tie-break of Pedro Martinez’s 7-6 3-6 6-4 6-2 win over Federico Delbonis, she fell to the ground.
Delbonis noticed the stricken girl and ran to the far end of the court to assist.
Martinez joined him as they called for further medical help.
A pair of Australian Open officials sat courtside hopped over the hoardings to help while the umpire came down from his chair.
Together, they helped the ball girl to a seat on the court.
It is unclear what caused the medical scare – although temperatures in Melbourne this week are peaking at around 30 degrees in the height of summer.
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According to the Metro, the girl’s parents came and collected her from the tournament to take her home.
Another incident involving a ball kid saw one lad take a huge Nick Kyrgios serve to the private areas on day two.
But with a grimacing smile, he stayed upright and carried on his services as the Australian maverick wowed the crowd in a 6-4 6-4 6-3 win against Liam Broady.
Kyrgios produced a never-seen-before underarm tweener serve to bamboozle the British qualifier, a new addition to his massive box of tricks.
Andy Murray came through a marathon five-set match against Nikoloz Basilashvili after nearly four hours on court.
And US Open champion Emma Raducanu earned her debut Australian Open win with a topsy-turvy 6-0 2-6 6-1 victory over Sloane Stephens.