Tennis balls can sometimes go missing, either by being flashed into the stands, but very rarely on the court.
Except on Tuesday, one peculiar but hilarious incident of a tennis ball going missing happened during a Davis Cup doubles rubber between the Netherlands and Finland. Dutch duo Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middlekoop faced off against Harri Heliovaara and Patrik Niklas-Salminen.
The Dutch pair of Koolhof and Middlekoop earned a break early in the first set and were serving to take a one-set lead. At 5-4, 15-0, the 40-year-old Middlekoop hammered a powerful serve enough to clean the cover off the ball. The opponent on the other side of the net Niklas-Salminen hardly got any decent purchase on his return.
Instead, the ball pinballed off the Finnish player's frame and would only divert it into the ball basket courtside through a dent created by the ball striking it at maximum power. The match commentator saw the funny side of it, saying, 'ball's gone missing in action,' as a ball kid wandered aimlessly trying to look on the court unbeknownst to him it landed straight in that hopper.
Koolhof and Middlekoop went on to hold serve to win the first set. Niklas-Salminen and one-half of the newly-crowned US Open mixed doubles champions Harri Heliovaara made amends and won the second-set tiebreak. Ultimately though, the Dutch counted on their experienced pair who have a combined age of 74 years, to win the match with a late break of serve in the decider.
It was a decisive victory in doubles since the tie was on level terms following the conclusion of the two singles rubbers during the day. The Netherlands managed to open their account in Group D by winning their opening tie in Split. You can watch the hilarious moment when the ball went missing during this decisive doubles rubber in the video below.
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