Carlos Alcaraz looked at his best as he brushed aside a swarm of bees and world number 6 Alexander Zverev to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells on Thursday, setting up a clash with in-form Jannik Sinner.
The world number 2 used the interruption to wipe the bees off the court in his stride before beating Zverev 6-3, 6-1 in just over 90 minutes to keep his title defense on track.
Zverev didn’t play badly but Alcaraz’s all-court play was just too good, with the 20-year-old Spaniard sealing the victory by breaking the German for the fourth time and taking his winning streak into the Californian desert at 10 matches.
βIt was strange, I’ve never seen anything like this in a tennis match,β two-time major champion Alcaraz said of the bee invasion, during which he was stung at the front before taking cover.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m a little scared of the bees. Once the game started again, I managed to stay away from the bees and do the things I needed to do.”
Italy’s Sinner continued his perfect start to the season by beating Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-3 to improve his win-loss record this year to 16-0.
A windy and cool day did not slow down the most prominent player on the men’s circuit as Sinner remained in control throughout, facing just one break chance throughout the competition as his opponent piled up the fouls direct.
Lehecka reached his first Masters 1000 quarter-final with surprise wins over fifth seed Andrey Rublev and 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, but had no answers for the Australian Open great champion .
The third seed quickly put his Czech opponent under pressure by collecting the first break in the third game with a huge forehand winner before closing the set with a second break.
It was much the same business approach in the second as Sinner again claimed the early break to take a 3-1 lead and he held serve en route to a 19th straight victory, including three from late from last season.
Local hope Tommy Paul also reached the semi-finals with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Casper Ruud and will face Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev, who beat Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4 to stay on course for his first title of the year.
Medvedev signed a first set of high quality and came out of a break in a tense second, during which he was hit in the body by a backhand from Rune in the first point, before exhausting the young Dane for the victory .
Third-seeded Coco Gauff committed 17 double faults but still managed to beat China’s Yuan Yue 6-4, 6-3 to reach the women’s semifinals for the first time in the California desert.
A day after her 20th birthday, Gauff had to come back from 3-1 down in the second set before setting up a clash with ninth seed Maria Sakkari, who ended American Emma Navarro’s run with a 5 -7, 6-2, 6-4. victory.
Gauff joined Iga Swiatek and Caroline Wozniacki as the only players to reach five WTA 1000 semi-finals before the age of 21.
Top seed Swiatek had also reached the semi-finals after former world number one Wozniacki withdrew due to a foot injury early in the second set of their quarter-final.
Wozniacki started strong as she took a 4-1 lead, but soon found herself frustrated when Swiatek produced a barrage of winners to come back strong and take the set 6-4.
The Dane, who returned to the circuit last year after taking a three-year break to start a family, took advantage of a medical timeout to have her right foot reattached at the end of the first set.
That didn’t improve the situation, however, and she signaled to her opponent that she couldn’t continue once Swiatek took a 1-0 lead in the second half.
Swiatek, the 2022 champion, will face Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals after the Ukrainian beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 7-5.
