Ballkid collides with Tennys Sandgren at Australian Open match with Roger Federer
Tennys Sandgren had a scary collision with a ballkid during his quarter-finals match with Roger Federer at the Australian Open.
With the fourth set tiebreak delicately poised at 3-3, Sandgren bent over to place his racquet and towel on his bench, with his outstretched leg bending backwards into the path of the ball girl.
She was unable to adjust her line in time to avoid a collision, with her knee making contact with Sandgren's right calf as she clattered past.
"The ballkid got him," Sam Groth said in commentary.
"That's unlucky, obviously inadvertent," Jim Courier added.
The incident caused Sandgren to call out and grimace in pain but it didn't appear to cause too much damage, with the unheralded American returning to the court after taking a brief moment to gather himself and stretch out his leg.
In fact Sandgren won the next three points following the incident, setting up match points at 6-3 in the tiebreaker, which he sensationally went on to lose as Federer dug deep to force a fifth and deciding set.
While physically Sandgren seemed OK following the incident it was one of several moments that caused him aggravated as he started to see a match he looked like winning in four sets slip through his fingers.
