Alex Michelsen Hits Spectator with Ball, Not Defaulted | Tennis Channel Live

uh this match was only 63 minutes long it could have been even shorter pros referenc this in the Highlight Alex Mickelson hitting a ball into the stands after he goes down for Love at this point clearly frustrated now this ball hit a fan Orly tort goes over talks to that fan John and the fan was was fine with it said no I'm not hurt it's okay he can play on what do you think the rule should be here because we've seen this in the past if the lines person in the case of Novak jokovic is if the ball kid in the case of miuk KATU says it's not fine then the person gets defaulted but here fan says no I'm okay they can play on what do you think John yeah I'm not sure that is the we're glad that the fan is okay we're glad the fans seems to have been quite generous I'm not sure fan reaction ought to be uh what determines whether there's punishment or not you've got rules in place for reason they are not applied consistently and yeah you referenced it was a year year and a half ago or so at roll and gas where we had basically a Japanese double player inadvertently tap a ball that happened to sort of graze a ball kit she was defaulted and then you have other players rifling the balls in Anger not intending to hit fans but still it's it's a reckless act look nobody wants to default a player in the middle of a final fans played you know there there's TV coverage there it's not an ideal situation but I'm I'm not sure how we justify Alex Mickelson being able to continue after drilling a fan despite the fan uh generosity versus other players who have been defaulted from tournament for inadvertently tapping B it just it just doesn't make sense and we need some sort of uniform application of rules here it's a it's a very tough spot for everyone and it's just a complete gray area number one as John said you don't want to default a player in the middle of a final if you can help it so the Umpire has to have some sort of judgment in the moment there don't know if it can be black or white at the same time it's tough to go off the fans reaction I mean they they may react one way in the moment they may not feel that way 10 minutes later so it's it's brutal to have something of such high sticks rely on that but then at the same time I'll play Devil's Advocate if you're firing a ball in Anger you're always taking a risk it could go right into the net nothing could happen uh Tim Henman the nicest individual you will ever meet fired a ball into the net literally into the net during in in the 90s at Wimbledon a ball kid happened to be running across and it hit her defaulted on the spot call it bad luck call it shouldn't have had that in Anger it's it's tough either way but you're running a risk but I I do agree with John there's no easy way to settle it and nichelson knew right away and I think he would been he was like if I get default I know why it's my fault I did that it's under the players control and and take it one step further alexson really good kid nice kid keeps his head down works really hard really nice to all the other players he gets defaulted here that's something that's going to stay with him for months as a young kid that's going to be very tough to get over gosh he's going to feel so bad about yourself there are other repercussions yeah like John said we should take the gray area out get some specific rules in this by the way happy early birthday Alex mikkelson turns 20 tomorrow as he heads to the US Open top 50 player right now 49 in the world all right let's get to