Watch: Tsitsipas almost hits ball boy in frustration; narrowly escapes disqualification in quarterfinal of AO

The Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas for a brief moment had his heart in his mouth during the Australian Open quarterfinal as he escaped disqualification narrowly.

The world number three was locked in a battle against Jiri Lehack. It was a fierce battle that eventually saw Tsitsipas emerge victorious in straight sets. But there was a moment towards end of third set that had everyone on the edge of their seat.

Watch: Tsitsipas nearly hits ballboy in Australian Open

It was during the latter stages of the game that the event took place. Having failed to return a smash in the third set left the Greek fuming. And in his anger he seemed to have smashed the ball towards the ball behind him with his racket.

Tsitsipas obviously was unaware of the ball boy standing behind him, and the ball nearly hit him. Had he hit the ball boy, he would have immediately been defaulted and asked to leave the match.

Luckily for him the ball didn’t hit the ball boy and the match was allowed to continue. Tsitsipas went on to win the set 6-4 and eventually the match by 3-0.

Tsitsipas on the incident

Later Tsitsipas clarified his actions saying, “I saw the kid when the ball came back… I am a professional tennis player. I was not aiming for the ball kid obviously. I saw the wall… the kid in my eyes, was pretty far away from me.”

He also clarified that he was not happy about the action. “What I did, I’m not happy about that. I shouldn’t have done it. but it was part of the moment. My ball fell short. There was a bit of frustration there, but things happen.”

Something very similar conspired in the 2020 US Open when Djokovic hit a line umpire out of frustration. He too was not aiming for her, but it happened in the heat of the moment.

Novak Djokovic was defaulted for that and had to leave the game and tournament altogether.

The Greek will be featuring in the semifinal in the coming days. It will be interesting to see if he makes it all the way to the final again.