Henman apologised and gave Hall flowers after hitting her with a ball in 1995Sitting in the Amazon Prime television studio on Sunday night when it became clear that Novak Djokovic was about to be defaulted from the US Open in dramatic fashion, the memories immediately came flooding back for Tim Henman. It is 25 years since the former British No 1 suffered the same ignominy at a grand-slam tournament, becoming the first player to be disqualified from Wimbledon in the Open Era. Then a relative newcomer to the tour at the age of 20, he angrily, but unintentionally, hit the ball into the face of ball girl Caroline Hall during a first-round doubles match. With Hall in tears, the tournament referee Alan Mills had no option but to immediately default Henman and his partner Jeremy Bates to boos

Source: The Times September 08, 2020 00:11 UTC