Challenger tournaments often feature unexpected moments on tennis courts around the world, but what happened Thursday at the Montemar Challenger in Spain was especially unusual and unfortunate. Eric Vanshelboim, a 23-year-old Ukrainian tennis player, was participating in the doubles tournament when he suffered a peculiar accident.
As the player was arranging his bag before the match, a strong gust of wind knocked over the umpire's chair, which fell on top of him. The sequence was as improbable as it was unfortunate, and subsequent images showed the injuries suffered by Vanshelboim, who sustained bruises to his nose and torso. As a result of this incident, the tennis player was forced to withdraw from the doubles tournament.
It must be said that the player is perfectly fine and that yesterday Sunday he was competing in another Challenger, this time in Maia, in Portugal, where he lost in the qualifying round against the Spanish Alex Marti. We know that in ATP tournaments the conditions of the courts are wonderful, but when we go to the Challenger and Future categories it is not always like that.
The bad weather that has hit Spain in recent weeks means that tournaments that are played without a roof these days can have some problems. The wind that whipped in Torremolinos ended with this incident in a tournament that in the individual category ended up winning the Italian Fabio Fognini, who is looking for points to enter the next Australian Open.