WATCH: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s ‘brain fart’ underarm serve that he doesn’t regret

Shahida Jacobs
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina focused
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in action

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina played one of the most bizarre shots at the 2023 Wimbledon edition during a crucial moment of his match against Holger Rune and it backfired spectacularly.

The Spaniard and Rune slugged it out for nearly four hours in the third round on Saturday with the match going to a tie-breaker in the fifth set.

Fokina initially found himself 8-5 up in the deciding first-to-10-point tie-break, but his lead disappeared as his rival drew level to make it 8-8. Then he had the now infamous “brain fart” as he decided to serve underarm.

Although it was not necessarily a bad idea as Rune was standing deep, the execution was poor as the Dane rushed onto the weak serve and slammed a cross-court winner for a 9-8 lead before serving it out for a 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) win.

The underarm serve was not well received on Twitter with four-time Grand Slam women’s doubles and tennis commentator Rennae Stubbs putting the foot in.

“That was the worst brain fart I’ve seen in a long time!” she wrote. “Davidovich Fokina hitting underhand at 8-8 in the 3rd set tiebreak! 😲I mean i thought his default (hitting a ball out of the court) in the TB last year & getting defaulted was a brain fart but this year he topped himself!”

Freelance tennis journalist Jannik Schneider said the Spaniard “looked like a fool”.

“Davidovich Fokina just served an underarm serve at 8:8 in the matchtiebreak in rd 3 of Wimbledon. Lost the point and then the match vs Rune who was quick at the return. Would have been one of the coldest slam moments in the last years,” he wrote.

“Instead Fokina looks like a fool, now.”

Fokina admitted that he “screwed up”, telling Spanish media: “You have to accept what has happened, I screwed up and I didn’t want to play that point.”

However, the 27-year-old took the positives from his run to the third round at Wimbledon, saying: “I won’t regret anything.

“I’m happy for this match that I did because I was struggling on grass and how I played today I convinced myself that I have a lot of things in myself.”

When asked if he would attempt the same shot if he had another opportunity, he replied: “Why not?”

Sixth seed Rune, meanwhile, was pleased that Fokina opted for a less powerful serve at such a crucial moment.

“I was not expecting for sure that that was going to come,” he said.

“Actually it was nice because he was serving unbelievable so I was like, ‘OK’, it was a chance to get a match point. I had to be fast with the feet. Wow, what a match.”

READ MORE: Holger Rune backed to win Wimbledon by former champion

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