Watch bizarre moment Netflix tennis star Paula Badosa plays with a BALL BOY after opponent goes AWOL mid-match
NETFLIX tennis star Paulo Badosa played with a BALL BOY after her opponent went AWOL during the middle of their match.
The Spanish ace, 25, took on Laura Siegemund in the second round of the Miami Open.
Siegemund had already caused a stir by forcing an 11-minute break after losing the first set to go to the toilet.
And then at 3-0 to Badosa in the deciding third set, the German called for the trainer to work on her strapped left thigh.
It took an age for the physio to arrive and then they went off court to boos so she could be retaped in privacy.
But that left Badosa bamboozled as the minutes ticked by and she waited patiently beside the court.
The world No29 got up from her chair to drop tennis balls for herself to swat away without opposition.
However, the chair umpire informed her she could hit with one of the ball kids.
And that gave the ball boy – well, more of a ball man considering his age – his moment in the spotlight.
The burly, friendly chap jogged to the back of the court and proceeded to rally impressively with the 2021 Indian Wells champion.
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She was not taking it easy, though, as she smashed a few heavy winner flying past the bloke, to the delight of the Miami crowd.
And they were whooping and cheering when he even won a rally thanks to his sweet leftie forehand as Badosa hit the net.
After a minute or so, Badosa was happy she had kept herself warm enough and the smiling pair met at the net with a kind-hearted handshake amid rapturous applause.
The gamesmanship from Siegemund won her no favours as she came back, with crowd-favourite Badosa rattling off three of the next five games to win 7-6 4-6 6-2 in two hours and 51 minutes and book her place in round three.
Badosa took to Twitter to share the video of the wonderful moment with a heart-shaped hands emoji.
One fan said: “Impossible to not love Paula Badosa. Paula is hitting with a ball kid to stay warm. Making his day.”
Another wrote: “Always a sweetheart.”
And a third joked: “The ball boy Paula Badosa was playing at Miami Open is going to be number one in the world one day ‘unknown name’, what a player you heard it here first.”
New York-born Badosa, who was raised in Barcelona and is dating model Juan Betancourt, featured in the hit Netflix tennis docuseries Break Point.
But she was one of the first victims of the so-called ‘Netflix curse’ at the Australian Open in January when injury forced her to withdraw from the Grand Slam before it kicked off.