The ‘King of Clay’, Rafael Nadal proved once again why he is a ‘King’ in real life as well. During his match against Federico Delobonis at the Rod Laver Arena in the ongoing Australia Open on Thursday, the Spaniard had to go through a “scary” moment.
En route his 6-3, 7-6, 6-1 win against the Argentinean Delobonis, he was leading 4-1 in the third set of the match when he misjudged a shot and the ball ended up hitting a ball girl hard on her head. After this incident, Nadal winced and rushed towards the ball girl to check up on her. Nadal lifted her hat to check whether she was hurt or not, gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek and patted her back. This gesture of his drew cheers from the crowd.
Nadal’s lovely gesture invited compliments from all over Twitter.
After the match, Rafael Nadal once again went to check on the ball girl and gave her his bandana as an apology.
After the match, Nadal tweeted, "She was very brave!"
In his post-match interview to ATP Tour, he said, ”For her, it was not a good moment. She’s super brave. The ball was straight on her head. She was a super brave girl. That was one of the scariest moments when the ball struck her on the head. I remember a moment at Wimbledon many years ago, so I’m glad she’s all OK.”
Talking directly to the girl, he said, “I’m very happy that you are good. You are very brave.”
The world No. 1 seeded Spaniard will now face his compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta in the third round of the Australian Open.
Earlier in the week, world number 229, Elliot Benchetrit asked a ball-girl to peel off a banana’s skin for him during the qualifying rounds of Australia Open. The 21-year-old Frenchman was rightfully slammed by the chair umpire John Blom for asking the girl to do so.
