Memories of Marcos Baghdatis, who is retiring at Wimbledon, were invoked during qualification at Roehampton on Wednesday afternoon.
After losing to Ruben Bemelmans 6-7(5), 6-3, 12-10, Akira Santillan walked briskly to a secluded spot on the vast fields of Roehampton. He proceeded to take out each of his five rackets one by one and methodically destroy them either on the ground or with his foot. Santillan smashed the first one in normal racket-breaking fashion, but on forgiving grass it took him six attempts to succeed. He thus resorted to stomping on the last four, essentially breaking them in half at the throat.
After losing to Ruben Bemelmans 12-10 in the third, Akira Santillan walked to a secluded spot on the Roehampton field, took out all five of his rackets one by one, and destroyed all of them.
He left with a trail of destruction in his wake. pic.twitter.com/na6L2FkcXo
— Ricky Dimon (@Dimonator) June 26, 2019
video of the end of Akira Santillan's epic meltdown at Wimbledon qualifying following his 12-10 in the third set loss to Ruben Bemelmans. you can see him stomping on his fifth and final racket.
Video by @SportsHorn pic.twitter.com/jb47mWSzeG
— Ricky Dimon (@Dimonator) June 26, 2019
There were signs of a meltdown–perhaps not quite of those proportions–midway through the fifth set. The 22-year-old Australian incurred two unsportsmanlike conduct violations for incessant arguing with the chair umpire, the second of which earned a point penalty.
Baghdatis, of course, famously obliterated four rackets in one sitting during a match against Stan Wawrinka at the 2012 U.S. Open.
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