- Tuesday, February 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The inaugural day of the 2023 Australian Open saw scary moments when the spectators of the match between Frances Tiafoe and Daniel Atmaier were left shocked by a huge explosive sound.
Even the two players on the court were taken aback.
However, to everyone’s relief, it was later found that the source of the sound at the Kia Arena was a huge dummy tennis ball that burst. Nobody was harmed.
The incident happened when German Atmaier was preparing to hit a serve in the fourth set of the match. All those present at the venue were then surprised by a huge ‘pop’ sound.
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Organisers and security personnel rushed to get a hold of the situation and then they understood that a young fan’s giant tennis ball, mostly used to get players’ autographs, exploded.
While the relieved souls could afford to laugh about it, there were a few anxious moments at the Kia Arena. The young fan was also a bit embarrassed with the incident but he was at no fault.
On the court Tiafoe had the last laugh as he bagged the four-set match 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6) to advance to the second round.
It was the second time that it was the second time that a match involving the American tennis player saw a loud explosive sound causing a momentary scare.
Last year, Tiafoe’s match against Australia’s Alex de Minaur at the Paris Masters was also interrupted briefly by a huge sound and on that occasion too, it was a giant tennis ball bursting.
Tiafoe was the winner on that occasion too.
