Tennis - 'I got hit in the nuts' - Tennys Sandgren explains bizarre default for striking line judge with ball

ByDan Quarrell

Published 15/09/2021 at 08:31 GMT

"So tonight I got hit in the nuts by a ball kid toss with a little too much mustard, slapped the wayward ball into the fence, which collided with a ref's tushy as he was walking to the other side, resulting in a default," Tennys Sandgren explained with a laughing emoji after he was defaulted from an ATP Challenger event. How’s your evening going? To be clear, this was all totally my fault."

Tennys Sandgren has attempted to explain his very unusual default from an ATP Challenger event for accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball.

The mercurial American, who is ranked 103rd in the world, took to social media to regale fans about the incident as he described being struck in a painful area himself following a throw from a ball kid with a bit too much juice.

Sandgren is the top seed at the tournament in Cary, North Carolina, and he was left doubled over after a ball thrown to him hit him "in the nuts" as he prepared to serve in the second game of his match against Christopher Eubanks.

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The 30-year-old reacted by flashing his racket at a stray ball, which subsequently ricocheted off a fence and struck a line judge. He was immediately defaulted as a result of the incident.

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Sandgren took to Twitter to attempt to explain the bizarre incident to fans, and he took full responsibility for the default.

"So tonight I got hit in the nuts by a ball kid toss with a little too much mustard, slapped the wayward ball into the fence, which collided with a ref's tushy as he was walking to the other side, resulting in a default," Sandgren explained with a laughing emoji.

"How’s your evening going? And just to be clear, this was all totally my fault," he added.

The incident brought back memories of Novak Djokovic being defaulted from the 2020 US Open for inadvertently striking a line judge with a ball in an angry reaction on court in New York.

Djokovic also - completely accidentally - sliced a ball during a point at a line judge's head at Roland Garros last year, but was quick to apologise and check the official was okay.

Watch Djokovic hit line judge on the head by accident

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