This ballboy eats it head first into a wall, then rallies like a champion
In the age before the Internet, the benefits of being a ballboy who does a face-plant into a wall while working an early-round Barcelona Open match between world No. 54 Teymuraz Gabashvil and No. 66 Nicolas Almagro is that your only embarrassment would come from the scattered hundreds in attendance at the match. Nobody, except the hardest of tennis die-hards - we're talking as hard as this kid ran into the wall - would see on TV. But times have changed, so, here you go:
The perils of being a ballboy in Barcelona. Ouch! ? ??? pic.twitter.com/dCa3dmuW6o
— Stroppa Del (@stroppadel) April 18, 2016
Maria Sharapova once compared playing on clay to being a cow on ice. This kid just took the second part to heart. Or maybe he was trying to be a visual metaphor of Rafael Nadal's last two seasons on the surface.
The kid tripped on the surface that separates the clay from the concrete of the seating area, which also happened to Gael Monfils last week in Monte Carlo. One feels like this is something the tennis authorities could take care of if they weren't so busy not trying to find a resolution to Sharapova's drug suspension.
And ordinarily I wouldn't laugh at this because as funny as it may seem, that had to hurt both the body and ego. However, all seemed fine after: the kid smiled, immediately stayed in the match and the crowd gave him a small ovation.
