Two female tennis players were forced to run for cover during their match when a swarm of bees invaded the court.
Australia’s Talia Gibson and India’s Sahaja Yamalapalli were in the midst of their second-round match of the W100 Bengaluru in India on the ITF Women’s World Tour when they suddenly fled from the court.
Just over a minute into the match, the pair were in the midst of a rally when they appeared to spot something off to the side that left them shaken.
They immediately stopped play as a ball boy pointed at something across the court, which prompted a kneejerk reaction from both players.
Their heads snapped in the direction of the danger before Gibson swiftly pivoted and sprinted off the court.
Yamalapalli was close behind her running around the net and snatching her towel before she made a quick getaway of her own.
Australia’s Talia Gibson and India’s Sahaja Yamalapalli sprinted off the court mid-match
The ball boy and umpire stopped play as they pointed to something across the court
After spotting a swarm of bees, play was suspended with both players evacuating the court
Also spotting the trouble, the umpire scrambled down from his chair before hastily following the players to safety.
It later became apparent that the court had been invaded by a swarm of bees, that forced play to be suspended.
The competitors later returned to the court with Gibson, who was the No 1 seed, going on to win in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0.
It wasn’t the first time that a tennis match has suffered a swarm scare. At the 2024 Indian Wells, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev also had to take cover.
In remarkable scenes more reminiscent of a horror movie, thousands of bees descended on the main stadium in California, with play immediately suspended.
An incredible photo shows the insects all over the ‘spider cam’ that glides across the court, with officials forced to raise the camera high above the stadium in a bid to take the bees with it.
TV coverage carried a message on the screen detailing that play had been suspended due to a ‘bee invasion’.
In one clip, aired on beIN Sports, Alcaraz could be seen running off court and attempting to swat the bees away from his head as they took over the match – which was just nine minutes old.
