Tennis fans tuning in slightly late to the start of an Indian Wells showdown Thursday between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev were treated to a most unusual sight.
“PLAY SUSPENDED — BEE INVASION,” their TV screens read.
The quarterfinal match between Alcaraz, who was stung in the forehead, and Zverev at the BNP Paribas Open in Southern California was delayed for approximately 1¾ hours. It didn’t resume until a noted expert in bee removal arrived with a vacuum-like device and a spray bottle to deal with an unexpected swarm.
“It was strange. I’ve never seen something like that in a tennis tournament,” Alcaraz, the tournament’s defending champion, said after dispatching Zverev, 6-3, 6-1, to set up a semifinal match with third-ranked Janik Sinner. He added that his battle with Zverev would be “remembered for that — not for the tennis or for anything — but the bees.”
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Even after Alcaraz and Zverev returned to the court following the lengthy delay, they had to wait for the bee handler to address some lingering areas where the unwelcome guests were still buzzing about.
“The bee man is coming,” one of the stars was heard saying on the Tennis Channel broadcast as the world’s second- and sixth-ranked players shared some laughs.
The handler, Lance Davis of Killer Bee Live Removal, even came to center court to talk directly with Alcaraz and Zverev. The winner of the 2022 U.S. Open and Wimbledon last year, Alcaraz was then heard speaking to an ATP official about how the continued presence of bees was making it hard for him to focus on the ball.
“I’m not going to lie: I’m a little bit afraid of bees,” Alcaraz chuckled after the match.
Finally, the two stars were able to get the first set of the match back underway. At a changeover, Alcaraz showed hesitancy to sit in his chair because he spotted a bee. The 20-year-old Spaniard appeared to move the bee into a nearby trash can with his racket before telling a tournament staffer, “Take it away, take it away, take it away.”
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The match had paused at 1-1, 15-0 on Alcaraz’s serve. He backed away from the baseline as the swarm around him grew, then used his racket to swat bees away while approaching the chair umpire, who quickly announced: “Play cannot continue. We will pause for a while here now.”
Alcaraz said later he and Zverev were amused by chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani’s announcement of a “bee invasion.”
The bees were particularly attracted to an overhead camera suspended by wires over the court. At first a jarring sight, it worked to Davis’s advantage when the camera was maneuvered to a perch he took high up in the stands, where he was able to suck many of the bees into his device.
“No protective gear needed whatsoever for this guy,” the announcers noted of Davis, who stars in a program on the EarthxTV platform called “The Killer Bee Catcher.”
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A summary of the show on IMDb reads: “While there are many pest control businesses in southern California, none operate quite like Lance’s. Not only do they specialize in the removal of the deadliest species of bee in the world, African Killer Bee, but Lance is the only maniac fearless enough to perform the live removal of these deadly insects with no protective clothing, vale, or gloves.
“Entirely exposed, he uses his bare hands to remove these killer bugs, his body often covered completely by these highly aggressive and the venomous insects. Lance acknowledges that each time he enters a job he’s risking his own life in order to protect these deadly creatures, but his mission still remains: first, keep the people safe, then, save the bees.”
In a blurb at EarthxTV, the Palm Desert-based Killer Bee Live Removal says it chooses not to exterminate the insects, instead “preferring to relocate bees to a safe area where they can thrive and be their productive selves.”
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Davis wasn’t the only person on hand who displayed a facility with bee removal. Before Alcaraz and Zverez resumed play, chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani could be seen picking up stray bees still on the court and placing them to the side. He tossed one into the air and appeared to wave goodbye as it flew off.
Also in attendance near the court during Thursday’s bee invasion were Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who owns the Indian Wells facility and the BNP Paribas Open.
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