French professional tennis player Gilles Simon reportedly apologised '10 times' after he accidentally hit a ball-girl in the eye during the warm up for his US Open fourth round tie against Marin Cilic on Tuesday.
The young, brown-haired girl was reportedly left in tears after the serve hit her square in the face on the Louis Armstrong Court before she took refuge out of harm's way behind the umpire's chair.
Simon said that it is dangerous when one has a tennis ball in their eye, and added that he just wanted to be sure she was fine, because he had the feeling that she just wanted to stay on the court, but it was just really hurting her, Sport24 reported.
Simon, who went on to lose in five sets to Cilic, said that he asked the girl 10 times, and 10 times he had the same answer. He added that he hopes she's fine.
Luckily for the ballgirl, Simon has one of the gentlest serves on tour, at the US Open his fastest was timed at a relatively sedate 204.3 kilometers-per-hour compared to the fastest clocked at 236.5 kilometers-per-hour which was powered down by Australia's Sam Groth, the report added.
