NEW YORK (AP) -- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga insists he didn't whiff on a serve, as much as it looked that way.
Trying to close out his first service game of the second set against Andy Murray on Monday, the ninth-seeded Frenchman tossed the ball in the air, started to go into his motion - then ducked.
Tsonga explained later that a giant bug landed on the brim of his cap, blocking his view of the ball, which wound up glancing off his head on the way down. Tsonga pulled off his hat and shook it, then rubbed his hair to make sure no insects were on him.
He argued with the chair umpire that the awkward motion shouldn't have counted as a first serve because he didn't swing his racket - though he did appear to swing even if he was more focused on ducking out of the way.
That wound up being moot when Tsonga went on to win the point to finish the game. He would lose the fourth-round match to the eighth-seeded Murray 7-5, 7-5, 6-4.
- By Rachel Cohen -
