Thousands of bees flew to the court during the Indian Wells ATP 1000 hardcourt match between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev
The quarterfinal match of the ATP 1000 hard tournament in Indian Wells was interrupted due to a bee attack. The incident occurred during a fight between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev on Friday, March 15. At this tournament, Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostiuk reached the semifinals.
Carlos Alcaraz (Spain, ATP 2) and Alexander Zverev (Germany, ATP 6) each won a game in the first set. And in the third game, thousands of bees flew to the court, according to the BBC. They flew around the players and the referee. The insects were particularly attracted to the spider camera, a television camera that moves over the site on cables.
Carlos Alcaraz was injured. Judge Mohammad Lakhani stopped the meeting. The Spaniard’s manager, Albert Molina, said that Alcaraz was stung in the forehead. Spectators left some of the stands. After that, the tournament beekeeper arrived and removed the swarm.
Hope he’s charging extra for today’s services 😆#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/FJV4pwFzTo
– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 14, 2024
The game continued an hour and forty minutes later. Alcaraz won in two sets 6-3, 6-1. In the semifinals, the Spaniard will play against Italian tennis player Janick Sinner. The Italian is currently ranked third in the ATP rankings. The match will take place on Saturday, March 16. The meeting starts at 22:30 Kyiv time.
Carlos Alcaraz confirmed that he had been stung:
“Yes, I won the first point in the third game of the match and was ready to serve for the next point. I saw a few bees around, but I thought it was just a few, just not that many. But I looked up into the sky, and there were thousands and thousands of them flying, getting stuck in my hair, flying towards me. It was crazy.
I tried to stay away from them, but it was impossible. As I said, they got stuck in my hair, and I ran away. I’m a little afraid of them. I had to stay safe, I was running everywhere,” the Spanish tennis player said.
Alcaraz said that it was difficult to continue the match. And above all, to concentrate on the game. After all, the bees were still flying over the court.
“When we went out on the court, there were still a few bees in the corner, and it bothered us. We couldn’t start playing.
Then we decided to warm up a bit to see how it would go. I was just hitting the ball and I saw bees around me, so I couldn’t focus on the ball, I was focused on the bees and trying to stay away from them. So we stopped a few more times before starting the match again.
After that, we decided to warm up again, and yes, I saw that there were no more bees. Only one or two. So I tried not to think about bees anymore. I tried to focus on the ball.
It was a very important game for me. I’m surprised at myself for focusing on the match and not the bees. It was a great continuation on my part,” Carlos Alcaraz summarized.
