Andy Roddick was putting the finishing touches on his opening-round blitzing of Fabrice Santoro when a serve got away from him and led to the Frenchman not contesting the final point.
Two points away from a 6-2 6-2 6-2 win, Roddick's 225km/h serve nearly knocked down Santoro, who was standing to the right of the T.
Santoro felt Roddick did it intentionally, and barely got in position for the final serve as he let it pass for Roddick's 15th ace.
"The match was over," Santoro said.
"I was a little bit disappointed with the way he served the point before."
Roddick apologised to Santoro when they met at the net.
He said he was aiming for the T and hoped Santoro didn't think it intentional.
But he did.
"He served straight at me for sure," Santoro said.
"That's a good strategy during the match, but it was almost over. He realised it was kind of a mistake."
When told Roddick said he was aiming for the T, Santoro said: "Then it was the biggest mistake of his life. When he serves for the T, he gets the T."
Roddick said he understood Santoro being upset and would seek him out and talk to him to reiterate what he said on the court.
"I just said I wasn't going for him," Roddick said.
"I'm not going to go for someone up 6-2 6-2 5-2.
"It was a bad miss, but it was a miss I hit very hard. I was excited about the way I was playing, but to end like that it was a little disappointing. I can understand where he was coming from and I probably would be a little (ticked) off, too."
The ending marred an otherwise brilliant performance by Roddick, whose fastest serve was clocked at 237km/h.
He converted six of nine break points, didn't face one break point and had 41 winners to 14 unforced errors.
