Carlos Alcaraz admitted his Indian Wells quarter-final win over Alexander Zverev was the ‘most unusual match of his career’. The Spaniard was stung on the head as bees swarmed the court on Thursday, prompting a lengthy delay as a beekeeper was called in to deal with the matter.
Umpire Mohamed Lahyani suspended the match for an hour and 40 minutes as the tournament’s beekeeper came in to remove the swarm. A layer of bees covered the spidercam, which films from above using cables, and fans from one corner of the stands had to be removed.
Lance Davis, a reality TV celebrity known as the ‘Killer Bee Catcher’, used a form of hoover to clear the bees and posed for selfies with fans as he made his way off the court.
Alcaraz put the bizarre interruption to one side and defeated sixth seed Zverev 6-3 6-1, booking his spot in a mouth-watering Indian Wells semi-final against Jannik Sinner on Saturday.
After the match, Alcaraz said: “For sure it is the most unusual match I have ever played in my career. I’ve never experienced something like that. I’ve never seen something like that.
“I think I will remember that match because of that. I think everybody will remember this situation, and we found it a funny thing, that’s for sure. When we stepped back on court, there were a few bees in the corner that were bothering us.
There, Sinner notched wins over Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev before losing in a rematch with Djokovic in the final.
Medvedev takes on Tommy Paul in the other Indian Wells semi-final after beating Rune on Saturday. The winner of Alcaraz’s upcoming meeting with Sinner is set to go into the final as favourite.
