If pro tennis’s minor-league Challenger circuit draws attention from the mainstream press, then you know something strange has happened. Well, this certainly qualifies.
In the second set of his first-round match at a tournament in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Monday, Darian King of Barbados got very mad at himself after losing a point. King, the No. 310 player in the world, threw his racket against a tarp behind the court. As you can see in the video above, it bounced off the tarp and appeared to strike a lineswoman (albeit very lightly), who then tumbles to the ground in apparent pain. The announcers then proceed to analyze the footage, Zapruder-style, in an attempt to figure out what in the world just happened.
King was immediately defaulted from the match, handing the victory to Great Britain’s Edward Corrie, who is ranked No. 217.
King’s racket-throwing calls to mind a 2012 incident in which David Nalbandian was defaulted from the final of a top-tier tournament (the AEGON Championships at Queen’s Club) for kicking a linesperson.
You can watch more live matches from the Charlottesville Challenger here, though I guarantee that nothing this exciting will happen again.
