An invasion of bees interrupted the match between Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz for nearly 2 hours. It happened at the beginning of the third game of the match between them at the Masters tournament in Indian Wells.
Alcaraz was serving when suddenly a whole swarm of bees surrounded the Spaniard. At first, he just waited with the performance, but the bees became more and more and the Spaniard ran to the chair, and shortly after he headed directly for the dressing rooms. He was followed by Zverev, and referee Mohamed Layani announced to the spectators that the match had been stopped because of the bee infestation. As he spoke on the microphone, the judge was also about to get hurt.
At first, no one seemed to know what was coming next. The organizers responded by calling a beekeeper, who appeared on the court about an hour later.
At the same time, Alcaraz's agent, Albert Molina, announced that Carlitos had been stung on the forehead.
The players returned to the court an hour and 20 minutes after they had left it. However, the resumption of the match did not happen immediately. For the next twenty minutes, the main character continued to be the beekeeper Lance Davis. With a spray, he sprayed the areas where there were still bees.
Alcaraz continued to be worried and initially didn't even want to restart the game because the bees still flying, albeit much less. However, after the warm-up, Carlitos agreed to resume play, which happened nearly an hour and 45 minutes after the stoppage.
The Spaniard still managed to prevail 6-3, 6-1 and reach a place in the semi-finals.
"It was strange, I had never seen anything like that on a tennis court before. When we got home, we watched the invasion on TV and even found it funny. This match will be remembered for that, not for the tennis," commented Alcaraz. /BGNES
