Despite feeling sick and vomiting during the match, USA's Christina McHale still sealed a victory during the first round of the Australian Open on Monday.
McHale was vomiting on the sides of Court 15 during the third set of her match against Stephanie Foretz of France. USA Today said that after things got cleaned up, the match was continued with McHale taking the victory.
"I realized I hadn't been feeling well, and finally I knew it was coming up. I felt so much better after it happened. I don't know what caused it," McHale was quoted by USA Today as saying.
Daily Caller said that the American tennis player was either having some flu-like symptoms or her nerves just got into her during the game because she and Foretx were tied at 4-4 in the third set.
According to the New York Post, McHale said she was also embarrassed with what happened. "I was more just embarrassed that it took so long to clean up. But I did feel much better after I let it out," she said.
Some people and media networks even criticized her for her vomiting but McHale said she does not have hard feelings against these people, adding that what happened was really something unusual. "It's their job to show what's happening on the court during a match. I'm not offended by it."
Despite feeling under the weather, she was still able to beat her opponent with a 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 12-10 win that will take her to the second round where she is set to take on Germany's Carina Witthoeft.
McHale is said to be the next big star for the U.S. as she was able to compete during the 2012 London Olympics when she was just 19 years old. During that time, she was ranked 26th in the world. USA Today, however, recalled that she slumped to the No. 115 ranking two years ago due to mononucleosis.
But her experience pushed her to improve and rise from adversity. "My number one goal is to try and stay healthy this year. When you have something that's affecting you, your whole focus just becomes about playing again and getting healthy," she told USA Today.
Just at the beginning of the year, McHale suffered from a shoulder injury which caused her two Australian Open tune-up events but she is still bent on improving herself and doing better in her games, USA Today added.
"I'm going to take a lot of confidence out of this match. There's a lot of positives that I can take," McHale said.
The player is hoping to do well and feel better for her next games and hopefully make it to the end of the Australian Open.
