Carlos Alcaraz reacts as he survives ‘crazy’ Indian Wells bee attack to gain revenge on big rival

Ewan West
Carlos Alcaraz in action
Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, celebrates after his win

Carlos Alcaraz overcame a mass invasion of bees to defeat Alexander Zverev at the 2024 Indian Wells Open in a contest he described as “the most unusual match” of his career. 

The two-time Grand Slam champion crushed world No 6 Zverev 6-3, 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament on Thursday to set up a semi-final showdown with Jannik Sinner.

That tells only a fraction of the story, though, as the match was suspended in the third game due to a swarm of bees descending on the Indian Wells Tennis Garden Stadium 1.

Alcaraz was the unfortunate target of a group of the insects and was stung on the head before play was halted and the players swiftly retreated to the locker room. After more than an hour, play resumed following the intervention of a beekeeper.

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The world No 2 dominated proceedings after the extraordinary incident to see off Zverev, who he had lost to in four sets in the last eight of the Australian Open in January. The Spaniard now holds a 4-5 record against Zverev, with his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero recently highlighting the German as one of his key rivals.

In his post-match press conference, Alcaraz discussed the bee invasion and admitted it is a match that will live long in his memory.

“For sure, the most unusual match I have ever played in my career. I’ve never experienced something like that; I’ve never seen something like that,” the 20-year-old said.

“So I think I will remember that match because of that. I think everybody will remember this situation, and we found it as a funny thing. That’s for sure.

“I won the first point of the third game of the match, and I was ready to serve to the next point. I saw some bees around, but I thought it was just a few of them — just not too many.

“But I saw the sky and there was thousands, thousands flying, stuck in my hair, going to me. It was crazy. I tried to stay away from them, but it was impossible. I’m a little bit afraid of them. I had to stay safe, and yeah, I was running everywhere.”

World No 4 Daniil Medvedev, who later defeated Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4 on the same court, also gave his thoughts on the unique situation.

“I’m a bit scared of insects, to be honest. Whenever there is a bee, everyone is, like, don’t move. As we saw with the guy, normally they don’t bite. I usually sit like this for five seconds and then I’m like, ‘Wah, just get away.’ I would be probably sprinting out of the court,” the 28-year-old declared.

“But, yeah, crazy situation. I don’t think this ever happened in tennis. Unbelievable. When I saw it on TV, I was like, ‘wow, okay, let’s see how it evolves.’

“Then, [after] 10 minutes I see Sascha coming in the locker room. Okay, it didn’t go well. Yeah, it was crazy situation. I don’t think it can ever happen again. Unbelievable.”

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