NEW YORK (AP) — One of the early matches Monday at the U.S. Open was delayed for several minutes for an unscheduled game of hide and seek.

The vibration dampener popped off two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova’s racket on the second point of her match against Victoria Mboko of Canada. Chair umpire Aurelie Tourte, Mboko and eventually the crowd and security staff aided Krejcikova in her search.

“It’s happened to me obviously many, many times in my career,” Krejcikova said. “We lost it, and we couldn’t find it. That’s pretty much what was happening there. The dampener was playing a game with us, so we were all looking for it and I’m happy that we found it.”

Krejcikova, who won Wimbledon last year and the French Open in 2021, said it was “nice from all of them” to help f

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