“Bee invasion” paralyzed Alcaraz-Zverev in Indian Wells for two hours: Spanish suffered a sting

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Neither the triumphs of Carlos Alcaraz (n.2) nor Jannik Sinner (n.3) in the quarterfinals could eclipse the great stars in Indian Wells: the bees that in their hundreds invaded the center court and forced the duel between the Spaniard and Alexander Zverev to be postponed for almost two hours.

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 Californian desert tournament because that “bee invasion” -in his words- made it impossible to play.

Alcaraz, who had the most bees on his part of the track, suffered a bite without major consequences and both tennis players ran to the locker room.

The origin of the problem was a ‘spidercam’, a high-altitude camera that moves suspended by cables and where hundreds of those flying insects had settled.

Then the unexpected savior of the day came into action: a beekeeper who, armed with a vacuum cleaner and surprisingly without any protection on the face or hands beyond sunglasses, he 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 smiles from the tennis players. Already back on the court, although Alcaraz was not completely happy when the duel resumed because he continued to find some isolated bees, for example on his clothes and objects.

Reigning Indian Wells champion, Alcaraz overcame Zverev 6-3, 6-1. His opponent on Saturday in the semifinals will be Sinner, who beat the Czech Jiri Lehecka (no.32) 6-3, 6-3.

The Italian has the head to head between the two in his favor (4-3), he has won the Australian Open and Rotterdam this year and has accumulated an impressive 19-0 in his last 19 matches in the ATP (undefeated in 2024 plus three of the past Davis Cup).

However, Alcaraz already beat Sinner last year in the Indian Wells semifinals.

The other semifinal will be played by the Russian Daniil Medvedev (n.4), who won 7-5 and 6-4 over the Dane Holger Rune (n.7); and the American Tommy Paul (n.17), who defeated the Norwegian Casper Ruud (n.9) 6-2, 1-6 and 6-3.