You have seen cats and dogs scampering around on tennis courts before. But the latter’s affinity with animals reached a whole new level on Tuesday when a cow nonchalantly walked straight into the court!
Yes, you read that right! It was a cow indeed!
The incident happened at the Gwalior Chambal Tennis Association in Gwalior, India where a $15, 000 ITF women’s hardcourt event is being held this week. It was in the morning when some of the participants were busy practising ahead of the day’s play when a stray cow made its appearance and walked across two tennis courts much to the amusement of the onlookers.
The video of this rather entertaining event was shared on Instagram by the tournament’s top seed, Fatma Al Nabhani. The Omani player understandably reacted with incredulity at the whole affair and quite justifiably captioned it as ‘I have seen cats enter the court but a cow that's a new thing.’
Perhaps the cow was impressed with the quality of the forehands and backhands being traded and could not help but get itself a free ticket to watch some tennis? After all, the sport’s connection with cows is not new.
The 18-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has been presented with two cows over the course of his glittering career by his home tournament – the Swiss Open. Maybe that explains any cow’s fondness for the game after all!
Meanwhile, Nabhani, who is responsible for making the cow an internet sensation and fetching its strut over 1600 Instagram views in 8 hours, had a blazing start to her campaign. She thrashed local girl Prakriti Banwani 6-1, 6-0 to set up a blockbuster encounter with the rising Indian talent Pranjala Yadlapalli.
Second-seeded Riya Bhatia too had no trouble and safely made it through to the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over compatriot Isha Budwal.
