Defending champion Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia handed his racquet to a ballboy in frustration today as he lost his opening singles match at the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament in Auckland.
Hrbaty, the eighth seed, was beaten 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 by qualifier Gilles Elseneer of Belgium, ranked 205 in the world.
After
cruising to a one set lead, Hrbaty's game fell apart in the second and, trailing 1-5 and 0-30, he gave his racquet away after totally missing one ball.
A reluctant ballboy faced Elseneer's next serve, skying the ball high and wide, and although Hrbaty was prepared to concede the point and potentially the set, the 21-year-old Belgian reserved the point.
Hrbaty got the ball back this time, but the point had to be replayed a second time after a disputed line call.
The line umpire called an Elseneer ball good, but was over-ruled by the chair umpire who said the ball was out. Hrbaty sportingly disagreed, and indicated the ball was in, so the point was replayed and eventually Elseneer secured the set.
The Slovak's game remained wayward in the third set, and Elseneer - who only got into the draw through last weekend's qualifying tournament - took out the match.
"I just tried to have some fun on the court," Elseneer said after the match.
"I had nothing to lose. I was lucky today, it was my day. That's tennis."
In another opening round singles match today, fifth seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic beat Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy 7-5 6-3.
- NZPA
