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'Kyrgios would be proud': Tennis player booed for underarm serve

The fans at the Rio Open erupted on Monday when they jeered Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after using an underarm serve during the match.

Fokina was locked in a tight first set battle with opponent and home grown hopeful Seyboth Wild when at 5-5 the Spaniard used an underarm serve to trick the Brazilian.

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Wild was able to reach the serve but was stranded in no man’s land and Fokina hit a clean backhand winner from the return.

But fans took huge exception to the World No.90’s tactics and booed the use of the underarm.

“He threw in the underarm serve and you can think of what the crowd think of that,” the commentator said.

“We saw this a lot in 2019, it sort of came back into fashion. Once again, that tactic has been pulled out of the bag and I’ll tell you what it has worked out wonderfully for him.”

“Nick Kyrgios would be proud of that,” another commentator added.

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Kyrgios regularly used the underarm serve to throw off opponents returning far beyond the baseline.

The most famous example was against World No.2 Rafael Nadal in Mexico.

Nadal expressed his dissatisfaction after the spiteful match when he said Kyrgios “lacks respect for the public, the rival and towards himself.”

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina hitting an underarm serve and fist pumping after the point.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was booed at the Rio Open for using an underarm serve. (Images: Tennis TV)