(VIDEO) American tennis player draws criticism online after deemed overreacting to ball hitting him in face at Challenger Tournament

A very bizarre incident occurred on the Challenger Tour in Morelia involving American tennis player Stefan Kozlov. As he wandered back to the baseline, a slow-moving ball hit him in the face, causing him to go down in a lot of pain. He has since apologised for his reaction to the incident.

The world number 265 was competing in the first round of the tournament in Mexico against fellow countryman Andres Martin. With a handful of quarterfinals reached, Kozlov was hoping to get back on track for another deep run and possibly a title charge.

This would not pan out as he would have wanted after going one set down against Martin. The damage was done in the opening stages of the set as Kozlov went 4-0 down. He was unable to break back despite having his chances and ultimately had a lot of work to do if he was going to continue his quest for success in this tournament.

After saving a break point early in the second set, Kozlov was determined to get a hold on the board. He strolled towards the baseline as the ball boy sent a ball going in his direction. While not that fast, it made direct contact with his face, giving him a lot of pain in his eye. He collapsed to the ground before getting back up to his feet, stumbling backwards slightly.

The ball boy was joined at the back of the court by the umpire who looked to defuse the situation, checking up on the condition of Kozlov. Eventually, he was ready to go again, confirming to his opponent that it hit him in the eye. Koznov would hold but would relinquish power a couple of games later as Martin scooped up the final five games to seal a comfortable victory.

Koznov was getting a lot of criticism from tennis fans on social media. They argued that the ball was not going very fast and that he had made a meal of it, over-reacting by quite some margin. Koznov fought back, replying to a tennis account: "Doesn’t matter how slow the ball was, I wasn’t looking and it hit me square in the eye. Over exaggerated, yeah. Faking that’s just stupid."

Just before he posted that response, he posted a statement on X about his conduct on court. "After some reflection I want to apologise for my reaction after being hit in the eye yesterday," he wrote. "It was an accident, and I shouldn’t have responded the way I did. I let emotions of a difficult time on court get the best of me in that moment. I take responsibility and I’m sorry to the ball kid and everyone involved."