In extraordinary scenes at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the men's quarter final between defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev was suspended because of a "bee invasion".
Less than three games into the opening set on Friday, play was brought to a standstill as a swarm of bees descended on Court 1.
After Alcaraz and Zverev fled the court and took cover in the locker room, umpire Mohamed Lahyani declared a "bee invasion" would see the match suspended until further notice.
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According to Alcaraz's agent Albert Molina, the two-time grand slam winner was stung on his forehead in the chaos. It has also been reported that Lahyani was stung too.
The insects soon began encircling the court's spider camera located above the centre of the court.
A beekeeper has since been called to the court to remove the bees.
The bees did not impact the neighbouring courts with the women's quarter final between Coco Gauff and unseeded player Yuan Yue on Court 2 continuing undisrupted.
Speaking after her quarter-final win on the same court, women's No.1 seed Iga Swiatek was stunned.
"I'm glad I'm not there anymore," she said in her post-match press conference.
"That's crazy. There was nothing like 30 minutes ago. I would run away."
The match will resume after the break with Alcaraz on serve and the score standing at 1-1, 15-0.
The winner of the match will face No.3 seed Jannik Sinner in the semi finals.
MORE TO COME.
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