Play suspended in Barcelona when the wrong racquet gets taken for stringing
All was right for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the end, as he scored a big win.
During the first sit-down changeover of the Thursday's second-round match between Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Andrey Rublev in Barcelona, the Spaniard sent out a racquet to be restrung.
Little did he know that this ordinary occurance would soon result in an uncommon suspension of play.
The problem? The wrong racquet was taken to the stringing room from Davidovich Fokina’s chair, which left the world No. 30 without his weapon of choice, and the chair umpire calling out after the court attendant to return with it.
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“The girl by mistake took the wrong racquet to the stringer by mistake, the one he uses for playing,” umpire Manuel Messina could be heard saying. “She’s coming back with the right racquet. Thanks.”
While the Spaniard watched over the interaction, Rublev took the break to meditate. Meanwhile, Messina reiterated the urgency of the request, asking the girl to return as hurriedly as possible so play could resume. After five minutes, the playing racquet was returned and swapped for the right one, and play resumed with Davidovich Fokina serving at 1-2.
The Spaniard went onto defeat the No. 4 seed 7-5, 6-4, his first win against Rublev in six attempts.
Watch the replay of the second-round match here.
Davidovich Fokina plays Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals, which will kick off Friday's slate of play on Tennis Channel at 5:00 a.m. ET. Click here to tune into the match.