Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune were forced to leave the court when the net broke during their match.

Jannik Sinner broke the net when he missed his first serve (Image: Eurosport)

Jannik Sinner’s exciting fourth-round clash with Holger Rune at the Australian Open was suspended when the world No. 1 accidentally broke the net.

There had been plenty of delays in Monday’s match with both men taking medical time outs.

But players was brought to a complete halt when the base of the net snapped out of the court, with both men eventually leaving the court altogether.

After a dramatic third set, Sinner and Rune were both trying to settle things down at the beginning of the fourth. The Italian was serving at 0-1 when he missed his first serve and sent a ball flying into the net.

But it hit the cord in the middle of the net with such force that it broke. The umpire rushed over to inspect the damage, which was worse than anyone could’ve thought.

The base holding the net into the court had been snapped off entirely. “The net has gone here. That’s properly broken,” Arvind Palmer said on commentary.

Naomi Cavaday added: “Yeah, snapped right out of the base so we can’t continue until this gets sorted. So much going on in this match!”

Repairs staff were called in when the net snapped out of the court (Image: Getty)

After both men struggled physically in set three, Palmer thought they wouldn’t mind a short delay. “I think both players would be pretty happy for the break here, more time to recover. That has come out of the court, that,” he added.

But it quickly became apparent that it was going to take a while to fix the net. The chair umpire confirmed that play would be halted, telling the crowd: “As you can see, we need time to fix the net as soon as possible. It’s probably going to take a few minutes, thank you for your patience.”

It was the latest in a series of disruptions in the round-of-16 contest. Sinner left the court for a medical time out at 3-2 in the third set which ended up taking 11 minutes. Rune then had his own visit from the physio right before his opponent served for the lead at 5-3.

“This match has been full of delays,” Cavaday said. “We’ve had one of the longest medical timeouts I’ve ever seen in 11 and a half minutes from Jannik.

“There was also a lengthy changeover at the end of the set when he left the court then. We’ve had a medical time out for Rune. And now, the net is completely broken.”

Tournament referee Wayne McKewen had to come out and explain the issue to both players, and Sinner started to pack up. “Are they leaving the court?” Cavaday asked.

“Just made a signal, it looked like it’s going to be 20 minutes. What do you do? Are you going to hold them on the court? So I think both players have been told they can leave the court. They’ll be able to chat with their teams.”

Sinner and Rune walked off Rod Laver Arena, returning 16 minutes later to huge cheers. The match was suspended for so long that they were given a warm-up before play finally resumed with Sinner leading at 6-3 3-6 6-3 0-1.