John Millman suffered a bizarre eye injury during his first round match against Marcos Giron at the Mexican Open in Acapulco on monday, leading to his retirement a few moments later.
The Australian started the match brilliantly by breaking the American early. However, Giron broke back and the first set went to a tie-break, which the American won 7-3.
In the second set, Giron saved a break point to take the first game before breaking Millman to go 2-0 up. In the third game, the American was leading 40-15. He served a fault and Millman looked to deflect the ball. However, the ball hit his right eye and he went down in pain.
The 32-year-old was eventually forced to retire due to injury and Giron reached the next round.
Giron will now face eighth seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the second round of the Mexican Open
Millman wasn't the only player to suffer an injury in the tournament as World No. 6 Matteo Berrettini was forced to retire in the second set of his first round match against Tommy Paul due to an abdomen injury.
John Millman has won four out of 10 matches this year
Millman, who is currently ranked 80th in the world, started 2022 with a first-round exit at the Adelaide International 1. He suffered a similar result at the Adelaide International 2, losing to Jaume Munar.
Millman reached the second round of the Australian Open following a win over Feliciano Lopez in four sets. However, he was beaten comprehensively by World No.3 Alexander Zverev in the second round.
After a first-round exit at the Dallas Open, the Australian competed at the Delray Beach Open and started with a win over eighth seed Maxime Cressy in the first round. He then beat Giron before stunning third seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4 to seal his place in the semifinals of the competition. Here, he lost to Reilly Opelka in a thrilling contest in which all three sets were decided via tiebreaks.
Following his injury in Acapulco, it will be interesting to see when the Australian returns to action.
Meanwhile, top seed Daniil Medvedev sealed his place in the second round by beating Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-4. Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal had little trouble advancing to the next stage with a comfortable win over Denis Kudla.
World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas also booked his place in the last 16 by beating Laslo Djere.