Carlos Alcaraz said he surprised himself by staying focused despite being stung on the forehead at Indian Wells on Thursday after the Spaniard’s quarter-final against Alexander Zverev was interrupted by a swarm of bees.<\/p>\n
The world number two was serving in the third game of the match when the bees descended upon him. The 20-year-old tried swatting them away with his racket but eventually ran for cover after being stung.<\/p>\n
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\nAlcaraz, who emerged with a 6-3 6-1 victory to keep his title defence on track, said the bees were all over him.<\/p>\n
“I saw some bees around but I thought it was just a few of them, just not too many,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n
“But I saw the sky and there was thousands flying, stuck in my hair, going to me. It was crazy. I tried to stay away from them, but it was impossible.”
\nPlay resumed after an hour and 48 minutes, during which a beekeeper was called to control the situation.<\/p>\n
“When we stepped on court, there were a few bees in the corner, it was bothering us. We couldn’t start playing again. When we decided to warm up a bit to see how it goes, I was hitting some balls and seeing some bees around me,” Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t stay focused on the ball, I was focused on the bees and tried to (keep them) away. That’s why we stopped a few more times before the match began again.<\/p>\n
“After that, we decided to warm up and I saw that the bees weren’t around anymore. I tried not think about them anymore.<\/p>\n
“It was a really important game for me. I surprised myself that I stayed focus on the match, not on the bees.”<\/p>\n
American Coco Gauff, who was also in action late in the day, said she was relieved to avoid the invasion.<\/p>\n
“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen happen at a tennis court,” Gauff said.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully it will never happen again, at least not to me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carlos Alcaraz said he surprised himself by staying focused despite being stung on the forehead at Indian Wells on Thursday after the Spaniard’s quarter-final against Alexander Zverev was interrupted by a swarm of bees. The world number two was serving in the third game of the match when the bees descended upon him. The 20-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-393938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n