He hit a wall face-first at the Barcelona Open 10 years ago and instantly became famous

Ten years ago this week a young ball boy at the Barcelona Open did something that nobody on court was supposed to notice.

He tripped on the clay, catapulted face-first into one of the blue advertising boards surrounding the court and then stood straight back up as if absolutely nothing had happened.

The whole thing was over in seconds. The internet, however, did not forget.

The moment came during a first-round match in April 2016 between Spanish veteran Nicolas Almagro and Georgian player Teymuraz Gabashvili.

Almagro had just collected a couple of balls to prepare for his serve and tossed the extra ones away.

The ball boy gathered them and rushed back to his position along the side of the court when he caught his foot on the clay surface and went down hard, slamming his head and face into the boards with a loud thump.

What made the clip so watchable was everything that happened next. Almagro heard the bang and turned around to investigate but by the time he looked the ball boy was already upright, standing perfectly still and staring straight ahead as if daring anyone to acknowledge what had just occurred.

When Almagro turned back to his serve the boy allowed himself a brief smile, which was really the only sensible response to the situation. He had not only survived the collision but had managed to make it look almost deliberate.

The video spread rapidly across social media platforms in the days that followed and the ball boy became an unlikely viral sensation.

Sports outlets around the world ran the clip and the moment quickly took on a life of its own, celebrated as a masterclass in composure under deeply undignified circumstances.

Gabashvili won the match 1-6, 7-6, 6-2, though few people who watched it that week would remember the scoreline. The ball boy stole the show entirely.

The story did not end there. Seven years later in 2023 the organisers of the Barcelona Open arranged a reunion between Almagro and the now-grown ball boy, recognising the moment as one of the more enduring pieces of footage in the tournament's history.

The two met at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899 and the occasion was described by the organisers as a celebration of a "historic" moment in the tournament's recent memory.

Almagro himself had retired from professional tennis in April 2019 after a 16-year career that included 14 titles and a career-high ranking of world number nine.

His final match came at the Murcia Open where he lost to fellow Spaniard Mario Vilella Martinez.

His last appearance at Barcelona had come in 2017 when he beat Steven Diez in the opening round before losing to then eighth seed Alexander Zverev.