Jan. 18 (UPI) — Serbian tennis player Viktor Troicki accidentally hit the chair umpire in the side of the head with a return against Nick Kyrgios at the Australian Open.
The errant return occurred during the third set of the second round match Wednesday at Hisense Arena in Melbourne, Australia. Kyrgios won the first set 7-5, before winning the second set 6-4.
Kyrgios threw up a serve while leading 4-1 in the final set. Troicki lunged to his left to try and return the powerful serve, but he could only get a piece of hit. The ball sailed up toward British umpire James Keothavong. The ball hit the umpire in the head with so much force that bounced off and cleared the length of the tennis court.
Troicki gestured his apology to the umpire before walking over to his chair and checking on him.
Kyrgios won the final set 7-6 to advance out of the Round of 64 match. He faces Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a Round of 32 matchup at 3 a.m. Friday at Rod Laver Arena.
“It’s going to be fun,” Kyrgios told reporters in his post match press conference. “We played last year in Marseille and he beat me in a three set battle and it was a lot of fun. He was a guy I obviously looked up to growing up. I’ve seen him play a lot and I know what he’s going to bring and he knows what im going to bring so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Tsonga is ranked No. 15 in the world, while Kyrgios is the No. 17 player in the world. Troicki is ranked No. 65.
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