Crowd loves ballkid’s priceless reaction after being hit by Kyrgios thunderbolt

A ball kid’s reaction to being hit by Australian Nick Kyrgios’ serve has caused the crowd to erupt in laughter.

A ballkid had a priceless reaction to being hit by Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios’ serve during his opening round match against Liam Broady at the Australian Open.

Kyrgios brought out his entire bag of tricks to claim a 6-4 6-4 6-3 first round win and set up a date with World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev.

But arguably his most impressive weapon was his monster serve, landing 82 per cent of his first serves and 21 aces in an absolute masterclass.

In fact, he realised it himself, saying on court after his match “I served f***ing well today”.

But the person who know knows just how well — and fast — Kyrgios was serving was a ballkid who copped the full brunt of a serve.

The boy copped a hit to the leg causing him to curl over, but it wasn’t until playback of the moment that the crowd actually realised what had happened.

And you could understand why the impact made him wince when the speed gun showed it was a 213km/h bullet.

A collective “owww” filled the stadium at John Cain Arena and the ball kid’s face was put up on the big screen.

A ball kid was hit by Nick Kyrgios’ serve. Picture: World Wide of Sports / Channel 9

The impact caused him to curl over. Picture: World Wide of Sports / Channel 9

He took it like a champ with a big smile, and then closed his eyes and nodded as if to say, “yes, that just happened”.

His great reaction even had Kyrgios laughing as the crowd erupted as one to give him a round of applause.

It was one of many moments of great banter from the crowd as Kyrgios took down Broady.

The ball kid took it like a champ as his unfortunate hit was played back on the big screen. Picture: World Wide of Sports / Channel 9

Early in the match, Kyrgios won two tweeners, one off an underarm serve and the other during a point, both causing the crowd to erupt in laughter.

He also danced to the crowd’s chanting and had such good banter with a section of the stadium that at one point even the umpire couldn’t hide his grin.

Broady was a good sport, despite the crowd’s overwhelming support for Kyrgios and booing of him.

In an interview on court after his win, Kyrgios called the crowd a “zoo”.

“I don’t know what I’ve done to this crowd because you guys are a zoo now,” Kyrgios said.

“I’m just happy to be here again. Obviously we’ve all had a tough couple of years so just to be back at the Australian Open again — I’m just happy to be back here in front of you guys. Honestly, it’s so much fun.”

He said it was his favourite court in the entire world.