2025 Australian Open: Ball boy collapses mid-match over extreme heat with play halted - who has made the quarter finals?

The incident occurred during a mixed doubles match as Tim Puetz and Demi Schuurs faced JP Smith and Kimberly Birrell, and attention was quickly drawn to the ball kid. As reported by The Mirror, Puetz and Schuurs realised that something was wrong after celebrating a point. Puetz rushed over to the child, who appeared to faint in his arms.

The match umpire also checked on the child's welfare before medical personnel entered the scene. The ball kid left the Margaret Arena in Melbourne in a wheelchair.

Staff members held up towels in an attempt to shield the ball boy from the crowd. It was later confirmed by Tennis Australia that the 'ball kid is fine'.

Speaking on commentary, Chris Bradnam said: “There clearly was a little bit of distress. It's been a scorcher of a day, over 30 degrees celcius. Need an ice pack and some fluid pretty quickly.”

Anne Keothavong said: “Not what you want to see but everyone doing their best to help. Help is on the way. Not easy out there for anyone.”

John McEnroe also commented on the incident as he referenced the scorching conditions. He said: “Conditions are pretty brutal. It's currently about 32 celsius. Even toastier when you're on a hardcourt surface, the cement surface.

“Needless to say it's important to get a quick start. I think that's why you saw Draper stop playing, the heat got to him, you saw he had other injuries from the three five-setters. Davidovich Fokina did the same thing. You just don't have the same will. I'm sitting here thinking I'm going to faint like that poor ball kid.”

The tournament got underway on January 12 and is set to run until January 26. Novak Djokovic is through to the quarter-finals where he will play Carlos Alcaraz in a repeat of the last two Wimbledon finals. The match will take place on Tuesday 21 January.

American Tommy Paul will take on the German player Alexander Zverev. Italian player Jannik Sinner is through to the quarter-finals but it has not been confirmed who he will be playing against.