Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz said that at first he did not attach much importance to the swarm of bees that appeared on the field during a tournament match in Indian Wells against Alexandra Zvereva .
With the score tied 1-1 in the first set, insects surrounded Alcaraz as he prepared to serve. The Spaniard tried to chase away the bees, then drew the judge’s attention to this. Both players then left the field. Chair umpire Mohamed Layani announced that play was suspended until further notice. The break lasted almost two hours.
— Yes, I won the first point in the third game of the match and was ready to serve again. I saw a few bees around me, but I thought there weren’t many of them. But I looked at the sky, and there were thousands, thousands of them, they got stuck in my hair and flew towards me. It was crazy. One of them attacked me.
But yes, I tried to stay away from them, but it was impossible. Like I said, they touched my hair and I ran away. I’m a little afraid of them (smile). I had to stay safe and yes, I was running everywhere.
— Before you started playing again, you said you were afraid of them. I thought you were really scared when you were talking to the supervisor and I told him that you saw a bee when you were looking at the ball. Then you came back and started playing and you played really well. What happened there? How did you get the bees out of your head?
“When we entered the field, there were still a few bees around, and that worried us. We were unable to resume the match.
Yeah, when we decided to warm up a little to see how it would go, I just hit the ball and saw bees around me, so I couldn’t concentrate on the ball, I was focused on the bees and tried to stay away from them.
After that we decided to stretch our legs again and yes, I saw that the bees were no longer there. Just one or two. So I tried not to think about the bees anymore. I tried to concentrate on the ball. It was a really important match for me. I’m surprised I’m focusing on the game and not the bees. But yes, it was a good start on my part,” Alcaraz said at a press conference.
The match ended with Alcaraz winning with a score of 6:3, 6:1. In the semi-final, the opponent of the second racket in the world will be the Italian Jannik Sinner.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
