If in France we had snow a few days ago, it’s summer in the southern hemisphere. And high temperatures have already caused damage to the Australian Open, which started overnight from Saturday to Sunday. One of the first victims on Melbourne’s tennis courts was not a player but a young ball girl.
During the first round match between Turkey’s Zeynep Sönmez and Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, one of them fell stiff to the ground when the second, seeded No. 11, was serving to win the second set. The young girl first staggered before fainting, then quickly got up so as not to disrupt the meeting.
Sönmez watched the entire scene and asked his opponent to wait at the same time as the referee interrupted the rally to check on the ball girl. Zeynep Sönmez finally took her under the arm to help her land on the edge of the court, to the applause of the public.
After a six-minute interruption, play resumed. The Turkish player (112th in the world), from qualifying, finally beat Ekaterina Alexandrova in three sets (7-5, 4-6, 6-4) and is waiting to know her opponent in the second round.
