Indian Wells Tennis Quarterfinal Suspended Due to Bee Invasion

In tennis, play being suspended by, say, rain or even extreme heat is relatively common—nothing to write home about.

Play being suspended by insects? That is something else entirely.

During Thursday’s Indian Wells Open quarterfinal in California between Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Germany’s Alexander Zverev, bees swarmed the court and forced a suspension of play in the first set.

With Alcaraz preparing to serve at 1–1, bees attacked him and motivated the chair umpire to call for a pause.

“Play cannot continue. We will pause for awhile here now,” the umpire said as Alcaraz jogged around the hard court to avoid the dive-bombing bugs.

Albert Molina, who is Alcaraz’s manager, told reporters that the Spaniard was stung in the forehead by a bee.

Another quarterfinal is scheduled to be played on Alcaraz and Zverev’s court Thursday evening between Russian Daniil Medvedev and Denmark’s Holger Rune. Two women’s quarterfinals were also played on the court Thursday without interruption.

Whether the pesky bees will abdicate their position to allow the next match to proceed remains to be seen.