{"id":314739,"date":"2023-07-08T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314739"},"modified":"2023-07-09T02:00:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T02:00:21","slug":"bizarre-kyrgios-esque-underarm-serve-backfires-spectacularly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314739","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre Kyrgios-esque underarm serve backfires spectacularly"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cheeky Nick Kyrgios<\/a>-esque underarm serve at the death has backfired spectacularly for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his third round match against Holger Rune<\/a> at Wimbledon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a fifth set tie-breaker and at eight points apiece, the Spaniard opted for the alternative serve which dropped in the middle of the court.<\/p>\n

As Davidovich Fokina advanced, Rune immediately smashed a forearm across the court in response and snagged the point.<\/p>\n

Watch Wimbledon 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Alternatively, you can stream every match live, ad-free and on demand on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, with centre court in 4K UHD.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Wimbledon crowd erupted having just witnessed Rune save two match points and come from 5-8 down to make it 9-8 in the final set.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/p>\n

Moments later, Rune served and sealed the match winner when Davidovich Fokina whacked the ball back into the net.<\/p>\n

"I mean, I've seen some decisions in my life, but I have never seen something like that," said the commentator.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Cricket Australia slams bizarre barber shop rumour\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Thunderbirds defeat Swifts in overtime to SN title<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Eels gun in hot water after tripping incident in loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"An underarm serve at eight-all. We talk about Davidovich Fokina being an elder statesman, more experienced, more mature, I cannot believe that decision."<\/p>\n

All told, it was Rune who won 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8).<\/p>\n

\"Holger<\/p>\n

Speaking after the match, Davidovich Fokina offered a brief summary.<\/p>\n

"We have to accept what happened," he said.<\/p>\n

"I shit myself and I did not want to play that point."<\/p>\n

Rune, who is still just 20 years old, said he was surprised by Davidovich Fokina's decision to go with the underarm serve.<\/p>\n

"I was not expecting for sure that that was going to come," Rune said.<\/p>\n

"Actually it was nice, because he was serving unbelievable. So I was like, 'OK, it's a chance to get a match point.'\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Again, I was not expecting it, so I had to be fast on the feet. But wow, what a match!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/josemorgado\/status\/1677743398302765057<\/a><\/p>\n

"It was unbelievable," he said of the match.<\/p>\n

"It's one of the most fun matches I've ever played and it's quite a small court but you guys made it absolutely amazing, so thank you."<\/p>\n

Rune will face either 10th seed Frances Tiafoe or 21st seed Grigor Dimitrov, pending the outcome of that match.<\/p>\n

Dimitrov led Tiafoe 6-2, 6-2, 2-1 before that match was suspended.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cheeky Nick Kyrgios-esque underarm serve at the death has backfired spectacularly for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his third round match against Holger Rune at […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314744,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314739\/revisions\/314744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}