'Madam, can we have the ball back please?'

All this spectator wanted to do was go home from the Sydney International with a souvenir, but she was sprung by the most polite chair umpire in history.

During the second set of Dan Evans' semi-final clash with Andrey Kuznetsov on Friday night, Kuznetsov sent a ball flying into the crowd with a massive mishit.

Unfortunately in Australia you're not allowed to keep the ball if you manage to catch one in the crowd, but the cheeky spectator thought she'd try her luck.

She probably thought she'd got away with it when another point was played and no one had said anything, until British umpire Fergus Murphy turned around and politely announced: "Madam, can we have the ball back please?"

Fergus = legend! Image: Getty

"Fergus very politely asking for the ball," Todd Woodbridge laughed in commentary as the crowd cracked up.

"How could you say no to Fergus?" John Fitzgerald added.