Defending Indian Wells Masters champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame a swarm of bees to advance to the semi-finals with a straightforward victory over Alexander Zverev.
With just two games gone in Thursday's marquee quarter-final, thousands of bees - at least one of which stung Alcaraz on the head - invaded the California court and made themselves at home on a spider cam.
Play was suspended for over 100 minutes until a beekeeper managed to get the situation under control, after which Alcaraz avenged his Australian Open quarter-final loss to Zverev with a 6-3 6-1 triumph.
The Spaniard won 87% of points behind his first serve and did not face a single break point during a majestic performance, in which he also took four of his five chances to break Zverev and committed a mere six unforced errors.
Despite feeling the wrath of one of the avian insects and admitting his slight fear of them, Alcaraz saw the funny side, saying on the court: "I'm a little bit afraid of them. I had to stay safe, and I was running everywhere.
"When we ran out of the court, we were watching the bee invasion on the TV and we laughed a lot about it. It was funny for me. It's going to be remembered for that, not for the tennis."
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Alcaraz now faces a repeat of last year's semi-final showdown with reigning Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner, who was a convincing 6-3 6-3 victor against Jiri Lehecka in just one hour and 24 minutes.
Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev ended a 10-month streak without an ATP Tour 1000 semi-final by defeating Holger Rune 7-5 6-4, benefitting from six double faults and 20 unforced errors from the Danish youngster.
Standing in the Russian's way of a shot at glory will be American 17th seed Tommy Paul, who made just his second Masters semi-final in front of the home crowd by sinking Casper Ruud 6-2 1-6 6-3.
In the women's quarter-finals, Paul's compatriot Coco Gauff had little trouble strolling past China's Yuan Yue, posting a 6-4 6-3 victory, but she was denied a meeting with fellow American Emma Navarro.
The 23rd seed had stunned two-time Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka in round three but fell short against Maria Sakkari, who came from behind to triumph 5-7 6-2 6-4.
Finally, world number one Iga Swiatek was leading Danish wildcard Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 1-0 before the latter retired with an injury, and the Pole now squares up to Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, whose politically-charged encounter with Russia's Anastasia Potapova ended 6-0 7-5.
Ben Knapton
