An Australian Open ballkid has been praised for his response to being bowled over by Aussie wildcard Dane Sweeny just 20 minutes into the tournament.
Sweeny was in the process of taking out a shock first-set lead over 22nd seed Francisco Cerundolo when the incident occurred, late in the fifth game of the first-round match on Sunday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Aus Open ballkid praised for ‘tough’ response to high-speed collision.
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Cerundolo’s smash at the net sent Sweeny chasing the ball along the back wall — and right into the path of an unsuspected ball boy.
Sweeny impressively got his racquet to the ball and his arms back down in time to embrace the youngster, avoiding a painful hit.
The boy also played his part, landing on one knee and maintaining his composure to get back up and play his role.
“Takes out the ballkid in the process, who just goes right back to business like nothing happened,” the commentator said.
Australian coach Roger Rasheed added the ballkid was “tough”.
“I’ll just give you a hug on the way through. Well done. That was actually a really good effort from Sweeny to control that,” he said.
Sweeny went on to win the set 6-3, a strong start to his first main-draw match at a grand slam.
Meanwhile, Australian wildcard Adam Walton made an encouraging start on his grand slam debut before being overwhelmed by rising Italian star Matteo Arnaldi.
Playing just his second Tour-level match, the 24-year-old Walton served for the opening set at 6-5 on Sunday but was unable to hold.
World No.41 Arnaldi took command in the tiebreak and then put his foot down to win 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 6-4 in a match lasting two hours and 36 minutes.
The 22-year-old Arnaldi was a member of the victorious Italian Davis Cup team in 2023, beating Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in the opening match of the final.
He also reached the fourth round of last year’s US Open before losing to Carlos Alcaraz.
Walton cut his teeth on the US college circuit from 2017-22 with the University of Tennessee, winning the 2021 NCAA doubles title.
He is one of 15 Australian men in the singles draw at Melbourne Park this year, the largest local contingent since 1998.
