Halle Open issues statement after ‘never been anything like this’ stoppage that sent fan to hospital
The director of the Halle Open has apologised after an advertising board came loose and hit a 62-year-old woman, sending her to hospital.
At 5-2 in Alexander Zverev’s match against Marcos Giron, the board slipped loose and hit the woman in the lower tier.
Play was suspended as medical staff treated the woman and it was later revealed that the Halle local went to hospital for further tests.
The tournament has now apologised for the incident, stating that Zverev gave her an ice pack after fans around her alerted the officials.
A statement read: “A tennis spectator at the Terra Wortmann Open had a stroke of luck during Alexander Zverev’s singles match.
“Fortunately, she did not suffer any major injuries and was able to leave the stadium on her own after the shock with an ice pack in her neck handed to her by Alexander Zverev. She was nevertheless taken to hospital in Halle for safety reasons.
Tournament director Ralf Weber, in a joint statement with event managers Dr Udo Kleine and Uwe Greipel-Dominik, explained that drumming on the boards by fans may have caused the screws to come loose.
“‘There has never been anything like this in our 32-year tournament history. We deeply regret the incident,” he said.
“Dr Udo Kleine and Uwe Greipel-Dominik, as event managers, checked the neighbouring boards immediately after the incident and finally gave the go-ahead for the game to continue.
“We suspect that the drumming against the boards caused screws to come loose. This must not happen again and we apologise. We will also check the other boards and fixings immediately after the Zverev match.”
After the match resumed, Zverev won 6-2 6-1 to move into the last 16 where he will play Lorenzo Sonego.
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