Novak Djokovic came within a few centimetres of the second default of his career as he narrowly avoided smacking a ball girl with a ball.
Towards the end of the second set of his third-round match with Botic van de Zandschulp, Djokovic lashed at a ball in fury. It flew towards the ball girl crouched by the net post and came within a whisker of hitting her in the head.
Had it done so, umpire John Blom would have had no choice but to throw Djokovic out of the tournament – the same fate he suffered at the US Open in 2020 when he hit a line judge with a ball.
Those two incidents make tennis’s rules on the subject appear very silly, in the sense that they are totally based on outcome.
What Djokovic did in Melbourne was far more dangerous than the act that got him chucked out in New York. He hit the ball far harder – it could have done the ball girl serious damage, which was never a possibility with the US Open line judge.
Novak Djokovic came very close to hitting a ball girl with a rogue shot on Saturday
Djokovic lost his temper at the Australian Open and went close to disqualification
Djokovic gave a cursory apology and got on with things, in a generally bad-tempered second half of this match as he began to struggle with his right ankle and blisters on his feet.
At time of writing, he was two sets up, at 3-3 in the third, as he chases an 11th Australian Open title.
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