Mark Philippoussis nonetheless takes his tennis very severely — simply ask the ballkid who received caught within the Aussie tennis legend’s firing line on the Australian Open.
Philippoussis was taking part in an exhibition doubles match on Sunday with 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis in opposition to the legendary American duo Mike and Bob Bryan.
Watch Tennis Live with beIN SPORTS on Kayo. Live Coverage of ATP + WTA Tour Tournaments together with Every Finals Match. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Trailing 5-1 within the first set, Philippoussis raced off the court docket throughout a rally to attempt to hit a backhand again in play.
He was aiming to flick the ball across the internet however the ballkid, kneeling in place, was within the firing line and copped the ball to the physique below their armpit.
Thankfully it wasn’t too exhausting a blow and Philippoussis, recognized affectionately as The Scud, gave the ball lady a pretend offended look and a hug and he or she gave a giant smile and shook it off.
“Oh no! Get out of the way ball kid!” commentator Mark Cation stated.
“Is she OK?”
“I think Mark has a future in comedy,” commentator Brad Stine stated.
Philippoussis and Baghdatis misplaced the primary set 6-1 and made a greater fist of it within the second set, however finally misplaced 6-1 6-4 to the Bryan brothers.
Philippoussis, who made two grand slam finals and gained two Davis Cups, is teaching title fancy Stefanos Tsitsipas at Melbourne Park alongside the with Greek star’s father Apostolos.
Tsitsipas will tackle Italian younger gun Jannik Sinner within the fourth spherical on Sunday evening.
It’s been a troublesome Australian Open on the ballkids, with a number of matches together with Andy Murray’s marathon second spherical match in opposition to Thanasi Kokkinakis ending within the early hours of the morning.
There have additionally been rising requires ballkids to be paid after it emerged they don’t seem to be financially compensated for his or her companies on the Australian Open.
Around 2500 youngsters apply to be ballkids yearly, with lower than one in 5 of them really profitable.
