Big Doofus Glory Boy Robs His Partner Of Kill Shot, Loses

With the Australian Open semifinals on the line, the mixed doubles team of Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andrea Hlavackova were standing in aggressive position at net. They were then served a gentle ball that looked like it’d land within six feet of the net. What a relief! That’s a routine put-away for any professional tennis player.

Roger-Vasselin, however, wanted to ensure that it was a routine put-away for one particular professional tennis player—himself, Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Maybe dissatisfied by how his teammate handled the first overhead, or just feeling very excited about the prospect of finishing the match off himself—it’s hard to think of any real explanation for this breach of normal tactics, but I’m doing my best—he shouted “Me me me,” scampered in front, and swiped at a ball that Hlavackova had easily within her range and had in fact already begun to swing at. She ended up striking the ball anyway, but his swing knocked the racket out of her hand and into the net. As the umpire explains, if your racket touches the net before the point is over, you surrender the point. They then went on to lose the match, 6-2, 4-6, 13-11 to Bruno Soares and Ekaterina Makarova.

The prize money for making the semifinals of mixed doubles at the Australian Open is $40,000 ASD.

H/t Ben