Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alexander Zverev this Thursday in the Indian Wells quarterfinals in “the most unusual match” of his career, in his own words. Laughing, in statements to ATP he spoke of the presence of hundreds of bees that forced the match to be suspended for almost two hours: “I’m not going to lie: I’m a little afraid of bees.”
“I was seeing some bees when I was warming up (to resume the match) so I wasn’t one hundred percent sure with the bees around. The referees told me to try but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure about starting the match again.” , said.
Only 9 minutes of the match had been played (1-1, 15-0 for Alcaraz) when the chair umpire ordered the duel to stop on the center court of the California desert tournament because that “invasion of bees” – in his words – made impossible to play. Alcaraz, who had most of the bees on his part of the court, suffered a sting without major consequences and both tennis players ran to the locker room.
Then the unexpected savior of the day came into action:
A beekeeper who, armed with a vacuum cleaner, was in charge of removing the bees from that chamber and also from the track and the first rows of the stands. The beekeeper was received with applause from the fans and with smiles from the tennis players once back on the court, although Alcaraz did not have it all with him when the duel resumed because he continued to find some isolated bees, for example on his clothes and objects. .
Already at the press conference, Alcaraz assured that this was “the most unusual match” he has played in his career. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’ve never seen anything like this. I think I’ll remember this game because of that. I think everyone will remember this situation and find it kind of funny, of course,” he noted.
“I was ready to serve when I saw bees around, but I thought it was just a few, not many. But I looked up in the sky and there were thousands: flying, stuck in my hair, heading towards me. It was crazy. One of them stung me. “I tried to get away from them but it was impossible,” he said.
Current champion of Indian Wells, Alcaraz will face the Italian Jannik Sinner (n.3) in the semifinals, who won the last edition of the Australian Open and who has not yet lost in 2024 (19-0 also counting his last three matches of 2023 ). “He is the best tennis player in the world now, without a doubt. He is going to be a great challenge for me to see what my level is,” he stated.