A ball boy was briefly forced to leave the Australian Open yesterday, after copping a hit to the genitals with a tennis ball.
The match between No12 seed Feliciano Lopez and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino came to a halt at 3-2 in the first set after the ball boy was struck by a 200 kmh serve from the Spaniard.
But he remained ever the professional despite the immense amount of pain he was clearly in.
After the contact, the ball boy made sure that he collected the ball that had struck him before kneeling down in agony.
Lopez looked on and was quick over to the aid of the young man, who was then escorted off the court by the umpire to have a bit of rest following the incident.
