Bees invaded one of the courts of the Indian Wells tennis tournament in the United States on Thursday, forcing the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, then in the middle of a match, to take shelter for almost two hours.
World No.2 Alcaraz was stung on the forehead and forced to retreat in the face of the insects, which he tried to repel with his racket before leaving the court.
The Spaniard and his German opponent, who were playing their quarter-final, were only two games in when the game was interrupted “due to an invasion of bees”, as described by the chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani.
Albert Molina, Alcaraz’s agent, told Spanish radio station Cadena Cope during the break that the Spanish tennis player had been stung in the forehead “but is fine”. The player said he had never seen anything like it on a tennis court.
The game was able to resume almost two hours later thanks to the acclaimed intervention of Lance Davis, a local bee expert, whom the fascinated spectators were able to observe using a special vacuum cleaner to evacuate the bees grouped on the “spidercam”, a remote-controlled camera suspended above the court.
Armed with a spray, the specialist then got rid of the remaining bees at the scoreboards, the courtside seats, the tennis players’ equipment and even certain sections of the stands, taking selfies and hugs with the audience.
The match resumed, the winner of the 2023 edition of the tournament won against Zverev, 6-3, 6-1, thus qualifying for the semi-finals.
This is not the first time a high-profile tennis match has been disrupted by bees. At the WTA 1000 tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2022, a match between Petra Kvitova and Bernarda Pera was delayed by a swarm attached to the referee’s chair.