Players run for cover as honey bees swarm Bengaluru stadium

Feb 19 : The S.M. Krishna tennis stadium was abuzz with more than aces and winners as players and spectators alike had to run for cover as a swarm of honey bees invaded the arena during the ITF Bengaluru Open, Indian media reports said on Thursday.

Play was temporarily suspended as an official spotted the honey bees and alerted the players and the chair umpire during the round of 16 clash between Australian top seed Talia Gibson and Sahaja Yamalapalli, prompting everyone to exit the court.

The stadium in the southern state of Karnataka, which also hosted the Davis Cup qualifier tie between India and the Netherlands this month, is located within the Cubbon Park, which has over 8,000 trees spread across nearly 200 acres.

The W100 ITF tour match resumed a short time later, with Gibson blanking out Yamalapalli 6-0 6-0 in less than an hour.