For one poor ball girl on Thursday night, the sight of Rafael Nadal’s fearsome forehand will be something she won’t forget in a hurry.

At 4-1 up in the third set, Nadal returned a forehand down the line, but wide, with Federico Delbonis serving at 15/40.

Hearing a line judge call ‘Out’ on the first serve, a ball girl stepped out from beside the umpires chair, only to be hit straight on the side of her head by Nadal’s wayward return.

Ouch, that’s gotta hurt!

Nadal immediately rushed to check if she was okay, kissed her on the cheek, and after his 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-1 victory for a place in the Australian Open third round, handed the ball girl a headband by way of apology.

“For her, it was probably not a good moment,” said Nadal. “The ball was quick and straight onto her head. She is a super-brave girl.”

When asked by on-court interviewer Samuel Groth about the kiss, the former Australian pro told Nadal, “Don’t worry about your wife for a second…”

Nadal smiled, saying, “Probably after 15 years she (my wife) doesn’t care much.

“It was one of my most scary moments that I had on the tennis court, as the ball went straight onto her head. I had a moment at Wimbledon a long time ago.”

Nadal was presented with the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the third time (also 2010 and 2018) during the ATP Cup in Perth two weeks ago.

Stan Wawrinka turned a near calamity into a fighting five-set win over Andreas Seppi on Friday to return to the Australian Open third round for the first time in three years.

Wawrinka littered up the stats sheet with 34 unforced errors in the first two sets (65 for the match) but came up clutch at two critical junctures of the match. When Seppi served for a two-sets lead at 5-4 in the second set, Wawrinka broke to get back into the match. And from being down a break at 3-4 in the fifth, the former World No. 3 claimed back-to-back breaks to close out the match 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in three hours, 38 minutes.

“It was a tough five-setter that could have gone either way,” he said on court after the match. “I kept fighting and I’m super happy to get through.”

The 2014 champion at Melbourne Park next meets John Isner, who has fired 78 aces in his first two matches. Wawrinka trails the 6’ 10” American 1-3 in their ATP Head2Head.

The Swiss, who also needed four sets to top Damir Dzumhur in the first round, claimed his fifth consecutive win over Seppi, remaining perfect in nine hard-court meetings against the 35-year-old, who has reached the Australian Open four times during his career.

Wawrinka has rallied back to No. 15 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, but is still searching for his first title since winning on home soil in Geneva midway through the 2017 season.

Alex Bolt is giving the home fans plenty to cheer about at the Australian Open on Thursday. The Aussie wild card is one set away from a shocking upset over fifth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem and leads 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in their second-round battle.

Bolt’s level of play Down Under doesn’t reflect his FedEx ATP Ranking of No. 140. He reached the third round last year in Melbourne and advanced to his maiden ATP Tour quarter-final last week in Adelaide. Five of his seven tour-level wins have come on home soil.

But facing a Top 5 player is a much different proposition. Thiem was ready for the challenge and immediately broke Bolt in the opening game of the match. Striking his backhand with authority and controlling the baseline exchanges, he scored an insurance break at 4-2 and comfortably took the opening set.

The second set demonstrated how momentum can shift within mere minutes. Thiem served for the set at 5-4, but Bolt finally gave the Melbourne Arena crowd a chance to get involved. Charging the net behind aggressive approaches to knock off winning volleys, he broke Thiem and the crowd let out a roar of approval. Two games later, a forehand error from the Austrian tied up the match and completed a remarkable 10-minute turnaround.

Bolt continue to take advantage of Thiem standing well behind the baseline by hitting short angles and making timely trips to the net. The flair in his shotmaking reached dizzying heights at 4-4 in the third set, with an around-the-post forehand winner just inches above the court allowing the Aussie to hold serve and bringing the crowd to their feet.

The set moved to a tie-break and it was Bolt who struck first by cracking a big forehand return for a 2/0 mini-break lead. The wild card’s nerves were tested when he took a 6/2 lead and let slip his first three set points, but an ace on his fourth chance whipped the crowd into a frenzy as he grabbed a commanding advantage.

More to come…