{"id":423154,"date":"2026-01-19T11:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423154\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:44:13","slug":"aussie-tennis-star-is-praised-for-classy-act-as-her-devastated-opponent-has-to-be-taken-off-the-court-in-a-wheelchair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423154\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie tennis star is praised for classy act as her devastated opponent has to be taken off the court in a wheelchair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helping her opponent Marina Stakusic leave the court in a wheelchair wasn’t how Priscilla Hon envisioned the scene when she finally returned to the second round of the Australian Open<\/a> for the first time since 2020.<\/p>\n

The Australian has, though, been lauded for the ‘classy’ gesture.<\/p>\n

Hon was leading 1-6, 6-4, 5-3 when her Canadian rival needed treatment for severe leg cramps on ANZ Arena on Monday.<\/p>\n

The temperature was around 29 Celsius (84 Fahrenheit) and not particularly humid, by local standards in summer.<\/p>\n

Stakusic was one of two Canadian players to struggle with cramps on Day Two of the season’s first major, with men’s No. 7 Felix Auger-Aliassime also retiring from his match with Nuno Borges of Portugal.<\/p>\n

Borges led 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 after about two hours when the 25-year-old Auger-Aliassime walked to the net to shake hands.<\/p>\n

\"Helping <\/p>\n

Helping her opponent Marina Stakusic leave the court in a wheelchair wasn’t how Priscilla Hon (right) envisioned the scene when she finally returned to the second round of the Australian Open for the first time since 2020<\/p>\n

\"Hon <\/p>\n

Hon was leading 1-6, 6-4, 5-3 when her Canadian rival (centre) needed treatment for severe leg cramps on ANZ Arena on Monday<\/p>\n

\"Hon <\/p>\n

Hon rushed to her opponent’s aid, helping her to her feet before\u00a0Stakusic (second from right) was taken from the court in a wheelchair<\/p>\n

‘I can’t recall ever in my life (cramping) this early in a tournament, this early in a match,’ Auger-Aliassime said.<\/p>\n

‘I’m OK, but I just started cramping at the start of the third set. Yeah, it became very difficult to be competitive at this level.’<\/p>\n

Stakusic was on court for two hours and was in obvious distress when medical staff called for a wheelchair to help her off the court.<\/p>\n

Hon held the Canadian qualifier’s left leg as she was wheeled toward the exit and the pair were able to talk briefly.<\/p>\n

‘This is classy from Priscilla Hon,’ Stan Sport commentator Liz Smylie said.<\/p>\n

‘All class from Hon. Not the way she envisaged picking up her first Australian Open main draw in six years.’<\/p>\n

Hon, the world No 121, had failed to qualify for her home slam in her last three times of trying.<\/p>\n

The Aussie last appeared in the main draw back in 2022, where she was beaten by No 31 seed Marketa Vondrousova in the first round.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"During <\/p>\n

During her post-match press conference, Hon said: ‘I really hope she does feel better’\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hon <\/p>\n

Hon (pictured) will now take on world No 27 Iva Jovic in the second round of the tournament<\/p>\n

‘I really hope she does feel better,’ Hon said, reflecting on Stakusic’s injury.<\/p>\n

‘That was quite a scene out there. I had quite a few people come up to me and be, like: “Wow, that was so dramatic”.’<\/p>\n

Hon said she was comfortable in the conditions, which have been consistently warm but not humid at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

‘I mean, I’m Australian, so I should be quite used to it,’ she said. ‘It was definitely warm out there, and I think as well with the nerves, the stress levels, it just all impacts it.’<\/p>\n

Conditions were similar on Day One of the tournament, when Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez rushed to the aid of an ailing ballkid during her first-round upset win over No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova.<\/p>\n

Sonmez was receiving serve in the ninth game of the second set when a ballkid wobbled, lost balance and stumbled backwards with what appeared to be heat-related sickness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ballkid stood up quickly but started wobbling again, and Sonmez went to the courtside and put an arm around her waist to help her into some shade.<\/p>\n

The ballkid was treated and quickly recovered, the tournament said.<\/p>\n

Maximum temperatures are expected to be slightly cooler during the first week but increase on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helping her opponent Marina Stakusic leave the court in a wheelchair wasn’t how Priscilla Hon envisioned the scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,100,7722,588,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-423154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-portugal","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}