Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt finally has some consolation after his Australian Open disappointment, with one of his media detractors suffering painful consequences for predicting the champion's early exit from the 2008 tournament.

Prior to this year's Open K-Rock sports presenter Tom King laid his left nipple on the line after claiming Hewitt would not survive the first week. Live on air, King accepted a challenge from newsreader Rob McLennan to have his nipple pierced during the station's new breakfast program if we was wrong.

 He was wrong.

Lleyton survived week one of the tournament, although only just, when he won that marathon match that ended at 4 in the morning. He was gone in his next match but from Tom King's point of view, the damage was done.

This week "Kingy" made good on his promise, suffering the painful piercing process in K-Rock's Studio One as thousands of listeners tuned in to hear if the station's sports guru is as tough as he often sounds.

Kingy's ordeal also drew a large crowd of station staff who got out of bed early to witness what many were already dubbing 'Lleyton's payback'. As K-Rock Breakfast Show colleagues Matt Byrne, Sarah Levett and Rob McLennan called the action, professional Geelong body piercing firm Body Pleasure's experts went to work, skewering Kingy's nipple before shoving in a barbell-shaped piece of jewellery that, to Kingy, must have lookd as though it had been brought straight from the gym.

Kingy winced in pain as his nipple was squeezed, massaged, stretched almost to breaking point and then finally penetrated by a 4 centimetre needle, managing to squeeze just four words through tightly-clenched teeth: "Ooh, yep, that hurt!"

Did he emit a piercing scream? We'll never know - the scream from Sarah Levett drowned out everything else in the studio as she saw Kingy's being speared in one of the most sensitive places on the human body. After the show Kingy reflected on his foolhardy remarks."I think I'll keep my mouth shut before next year's Open!" he said.

The bet was the latest episode in the increasingly bizarre relationship between the two members of K-Rock's breakfast news team. McLennan and King banter through news bulletins and bicker like an old married couple, much to the delight off Sarah and Matt and their legions of listeners.

Just prior to Christmas McLennan challenged Kingy, a notoriously big eater, to take a stab at the world pie eating record. Days later Kingy did just that, setting an unofficial world record of just 32.2 seconds, slicing 4.6 seconds from the official world champion time - once again live on air for listeners to enjoy as they nibbled on their own, slightly healthier breakfasts.

 Tom King's piercing is available for viewing on YouTube or at K-Rock's website, http://www.krock.com.au/. Radiorumours will have some pics up of the piercing later today.

 The Sarah and Matt Show can be heard on K-Rock every weekday between 6AM and 9AM.