Australian John Millman was forced out of the ATP-500 tournament in Acapulco in bizarre circumstances after hitting himself in the eye with a tennis ball.
The 32-year-old was trailing by a set in his first round match against Marcos Giron and was down 2-0 in the second set when his attempt to stop a ball hit back to him after missed serve went wrong.
Millman, walking back to the baseline at his end, stuck his racquet behind his back to try and collect the ball, only for it to rebound into his eye. He fell to the ground grabbing at his face.
Millman called for a medical time-out and tried to play through the pain, but his attempts were in vain.
The Aussie managed to make itxjmtzyw through three points before retiring hurt and gifting Giron a 7-6 2-0 victory.
Millman could clearly see the funny side of his injury, though.
On his Instagram story, he posted an image with his eye bandaged and wrote: “Always got to watch the ball”.
Millman was playing the same opponent he defeated last week on his way to his first semi-final in more than a year at Delray Beach, where his victims included two of the top 10 seeds.
He also impressed in the semi-finals against Reilly Opelka, pushing the No.2 seed to three sets over three hours.
Millman wasn’t the only player to retire hurt in Mexico on Wednesday (AEDT).
At the Guadalajara Open, reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu retired in her first round match against Aussie Daria Saville.
Hip soreness forced the Englishwoman to throw in the towel but the match was still the longest on the WTA Tour so far this year at three hours and 36 minutes.
