It has been some time since tennis has witnessed a brain fart of the magnitude of the one produced by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at Wimbledon on Sunday morning — and the Spaniard had some poetic words to describe it.
“I s*** myself”.
The 24-year-old has been left to regret a blundersome underarm serve when he was just two points from winning the match during his wild fifth set tiebreaker against Denmark’s Holger Rune.
Rune saved two match points and came back from 8-5 down in the breaker as Davidovich Fokina fell apart in the 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) marathon.
Holger was quick to react to the poorly executed underarm serve and had no issues whipping it over the net for a clean winner.
As Davidovich Fokina looked towards his players’ box and pointed towards his eyes in a frustrated gesture, the match was all over 60 seconds later when Rune converted on his match point.
“I didn’t expect the serve like that but I was fast to reach it,” said Rune after the four-hour clash.
He will face either US 10th seed Frances Tiafoe or former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov in the next round.
Bulgaria’s Dimitrov had won the first two sets when the match was called off due to the weather and light conditions.
The match will be remembered for Davidovich Fokina’s mistake, which left commentators truly stunned.
“I have to accept what happened. I s*** myself and I did not want to play that point,” he said after the match.
“I cannot explain what is going through my mind there in that moment because a lot of things are going through your mind, everybody is shouting and you are nervous,” Davidovich Fokina told reporters.
“I cannot explain to you what is happening in my head.”
Nobody could explain it.
Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg wrote: “My god that was one of the most earth trembling brain farts I’ve ever seen on a tennis court”.
“I’ve seen some decisions in my life, but I have never seen anything like that. An underarm serve at 8-8. I cannot believe that decision,” an English TV commentator said on Stan Sport.
American TV commentator Brad Gilbert wrote on Twitter: “I don’t believe what Fokina just did at 8-all in breaker. I am absolutely dumbfounded by the underhand S&V by Fokina at 8-all in breaker just fell apart at closing time.”
Tennis journalist Tumaini Carayol described it as “one of the all time great brain farts”.
Meanwhile, Aussie Chris O’Connell’s impressive run came to an end on Saturday night at the hands of American Christopher Eubanks, who progressed through to the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time.
He faced O’Connell on Court 18 at the All England Club and won in three sets, all going to tie-breaks.
“I think a hot moment kind of came in the warm-up when I looked up at the stands of Court 18 and realised, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is the Isner-Mahut court’,” he said in reference to the arena that staged tennis’s longest-ever match back in 2010.
“I watched tennis on this court for three days one time a few years ago. That was kind of cool. And to see the stands pretty packed.”
Next up for Eubanks is a fourth-round clash with world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas.
— with AFP