2024-03-15 03:48:10
The game between Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz only lasted a few minutes before it had to be interrupted. Boris Becker later described the reason as “unbelievable”.
First Olympic champion Alexander Zverev was stopped by a swarm of bees, then Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz was a size too big for him. The 26-year-old from Hamburg missed the semifinals of the Indian Wells tennis masters tournament on Thursday (local time).
Zverev lost in the quarterfinals against Alcaraz 3:6, 1:6. The Spaniard will now face Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner. The Italian had no problems in the 6:3, 6:3 win against the Czech Jiri Lehecka.
A swarm of bees caused a stir during Zverev’s game, causing an interruption when the score was 1-1 in the first set. A bee invasion on the field made it impossible to continue playing.
Before the eyes of Bill Gates, who was sitting in the audience, the insects flew en masse onto the field and even attacked the TV cameras. Alcaraz, who was serving, first lashed out and then fled into the dressing room. Zverev also took cover.
“Game interrupted due to a bee invasion,” the organizer also said. The game could only be resumed after an interruption of almost two hours.
“I have never seen anything like this in my 39 years of tennis. Unbelievable,” wrote tennis star Boris Becker on the X platform about the incident.
According to Sky commentator Marcel Meinert, a beekeeper was then consulted to free the “spider cam” from the aggressive swarm of bees. To do this, a spectator block in Stadium 1, where the match took place, had to be cleared.