John Millman played perhaps one of the best matches of his career, stretching Swiss legend Roger Federer to the wire in the third round of the Australian Open on Friday.

The local hope almost pulled off a massive upset, only to be denied one in the fifth-set tiebreaker. Federer won with scores of 4-6 7-6 4-6 6-4 7-6 (10/8).

Despite, Millman landed himself in soup by appearing to rub tennis balls against his sweat-laden t-shirt, in what would arguably quicken the pace of his serve.

Former Dutch professional Sven Groenefeld posted a video of Millman doing so, and wrote: “Millman applying the old trick in speeding up the first serve by rolling the ball on his (I assume) wet shirt before he serves? Is that legal in tennis I know it’s not in other ball sports like cricket and baseball? Do we have a rule in tennis?”

“Ball tampering & Aussies?” one person cheekily commented, referring to the recent ‘Sandpapergate’ controversy involving Australian cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner.

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As for Federer, he is scheduled to lock horns with Marton Fucsovics of Hungary for a place in the quarter-finals on Sunday.