New balls please!

[Pannonian]

I can't believe I missed this story from a month and a half ago.

"New balls, please" cries brave Gicquel

Thu Jun 14, 2:22 PM

HALLE, Germany (AFP) - Spare a thought for Frenchman Marc Gicquel who went on to win his second-round tie at the ATP Halle tournament despite receiving a serve - travelling at 208 kilometres per hour - in the testicles.

The 30-year-old was in the second set of his match against German Benjamin Becker - no connection to compatriot and tennis legend Boris - when he was felled by the serve which scored a bulls-eye straight into his delicate area.

With the speed-gun showing the serve was 208 km/h, the game was stopped for ten minutes while the Frenchman had ice applied, discreetly, to his wedding tackle - in front of a 8,000-strong crowd.

In a show of brotherly solidarity, Becker went over to his pole-axed opponent to pass on his deepest - and heart-felt - sympathy.

Having won the first set 6-2, Gicquel came off the turf - to earn the respect of each and every man watching - and won the second set on a tie-breaker in what can only be described as a truly ballsy performance, which handed him a spot in the quarter-finals for his efforts.

[Lorenzo_H]

ouch.

[seireikhaan]

Talk about having balls of steel... Jeez, that's gotta be painful.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Wow, I wouldn't have blamed him if he wimped out.

What a guy.

[Peasant Phill]

the game was stopped for ten minutes while the Frenchman had ice applied, discreetly, to his wedding tackle - in front of a 8,000-strong crowd.

Like nobody knew what was happening.