Well, that wasn’t the debut that Tennys Sandgren was looking for at the Atlantic Tire Championships Challenger event in Cary.
Things were going relatively smooth for #1 seed Sandgren during the early stages of his first round match against Christopher Eubanks. He was up a break in the first set, *1-0, and was 40-30 ahead in his service game.
However, when Sandgren sent a forehand unforced error long to go to deuce and was clearly agitated with him.
From there, a bizarre and disappointing sequence of events unfolded for Sandgren (video below).
Although much of what occurred was off-camera, it appeared that a ball kid accidentally bounced a ball that hit Sandgren in the groin, immediately apologizing with a “Sorry.”
However, Sandgren, possibly having frustrations well-beyond the missed forehand, given his lackluster season, lashed out in anger.
Although it wasn’t in-view of the camera, one can clearly hear Sandgren take a swing in anger that struck most likely a linesperson.
While Sandgren did give a “sorry,” for what he did and gave an apologetic shrug, it ultimately cost him the match.
The chair umpire stated, “I got to call him (the supervisor) to the court,” first giving Sandgren a point penalty and then ultimately, in collaboration for the supervisor, defaulting him.
Eubanks won *0-1, 40-40, default.
For Sandgren, it was yet another loss in a fairly miserable 2021 campaign. He’s now 8-20 on the year and has fallen from World No. 49 at the beginning of 2021 to World No. 103 this week.
With a short stay in the Cary draw this week, Sandgren should have plenty of time to reflect on what he did and ty to change his attitude on the court.
You can watch the whole interaction beginning at around the 19-minute mark in the video below.
Update: Sandgren tweeted out his side of the story.
So tonight I got hit in the nuts by a ball kid toss with a little too much mustard, slapped the wayward ball into the fence, which collided with a refs tushy as he was walking to the other side, resulting in a default.
How’s your evening going? 😂 pic.twitter.com/Tqe7lOkCLy— Tennys Sandgren (@TennysSandgren) September 15, 2021
Main Photo from Getty.
