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A match at the Australian Open was delayed after a ball kid vomited on the court. Greek star Stefano Tsitsipas was facing Japan's Shintaro Mochizuki in the first round on Tuesday.

Mochizuki took the opening set 6-4 before Tsitsipas bounced back to win the second 6-3. At the start of the third set, however, a ball kid fell ill near the back of the court, as the crowd heard a loud gagging sound.

Play was immediately stopped and medical staff treated the youngster, as both Tsitsipas and Mochizuki returned to their benches. It came less than half an hour after Naomi Osaka's game against Antonia Ruzic was suspended at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

TNT Sports' commentators were initially confused as to why the clash between Mochizuki and Tsitsipas was brought to a halt. "We're delayed here, we'll stop and wait for it to get sorted," they said.

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"Goodness me, everything is going on. Something in the crowd, is it? At the Rod Laver Arena earlier on, there was a technical issue.

"Hope that this doesn't take too long to sort. They are just having to hold fire for a little bit. I think something may have happened on the court and needs to be sorted out."

Staff cleaned the vomit up and play continued eight minutes later, with Tsitsipas winning the next two sets 6-2 and setting up a second-round clash with Czechia's Tomas Machac. Sadly, the ball kid isn't the first to have fallen ill at this year's tournament.

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Earlier this week, another ball kid fainted during the clash between Zeynep Sonmez of Turkiye and Russian player Ekaterina Alexandrova. After the girl fell flat on her back while standing by the umpire's chair, Sonmez sprinted over to the girl.

Sonmez got the girl back to her feet and escorted her to a shaded area and play resumed after a six-minute delay. "She was really struggling," Sonmez told BBC Sport.

"She said she was fine but it was really obvious she was not fine. So I went to grab her and said, 'Sit down and drink something, you're not fine'.

"As we were walking she fainted so luckily I grabbed her. She was really shaking. I always say it is more important to be a good human being than a good tennis player.

"It was just my instinct to help her and I think everyone would do the same. I'm happy I got to help."

TNT commentator Catherine Whitaker hailed Sonmez for her gesture, saying: "It was actually incredible from Sonmez.

"The ball kid was in a position where the umpire wouldn't have been able to see how much they were struggling, she had the best line of sight and was really alert to what was going on."