Game, set and match to flying ants at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON was hit by a plague of flying ants yesterday, leaving players struggling to concentrate and fans distracted from the action on court.
On what is known colloquially as “flying ant day” – the stage in the insects’ reproductive phase when they leave their colony – large numbers descended on SW19.
The problem was particularly acute on court 18, where Nikoloz Basilashvili was playing Sam Querrey.
Querrey lost the second set as the swarm intensified and said he would have walked off court had the problem got any worse. The American said: “I have never seen that before. It was for 30 or 45 minutes. If I had won that set, [it] probably wouldn’t have bugged me as much. I brought it up with the umpire and he kind of laughed; ‘Oh it’s the flowers, the bugs are happy.’”
Jo-wilfried Tsonga, on court two, said after his match: “That was strange. Sometimes you have them in the US at night and in Australia. This was different, it was in my nose, in my hair.”
Johanna Konta had to brush the insects from her arm during her Centre Court match against Donna Vekic, who swatted them from her face before serving. Konta said she was “pretty sure” she had swallowed some.
The problem is likely to persist for several days, as the ants continue their mating phase, instigated by the queen ants, with the warm weather only encouraging their behaviour.
Sport, Pages 1-7
WHETHER it’s an autograph, a sweatband or even a towel, picking up a memento from a Wimbledon match can be the high point of many a young tennis fan’s day.
But one Wimbledon spectator put paid to that simple delight when he snatched a towel thrown by US player Jack Sock towards a teenage boy.
Footage from the match on Court 8 showed the middle-aged spectator determinedly wrestling the player’s towel away from the boy sitting one row behind him.
After the match, Sock promised that if the teenager, thought to be from Ireland, came forward he would present him with a replacement towel to make up for his disappointment.
The number 17 seed wrote on Twitter: “If anyone knows the kid that unfortunately had the towel ripped out of his hands … tweet his name at me and I’ll be sure to get him one.”
The towel snatching incident was the kind of ungentlemanly behaviour frowned on at the All England Lawn Tennis Club and it quickly prompted condemnation from players and fans.
Andy Murray’s mother, Judy, did not mince her words when she saw a replay, saying on Twitter: “If you are the bloke in the blue polo shirt and hat, you should be ashamed.”
Footage from Sock’s first round match against Christian Garin shows him glancing up at the teenager, who travelled to Wimbledon from Ireland, before throwing the towel towards him after he appeared to ask the player for it. But the heavy-set spectator in a straw hat in front of him intervenes and grabs at the towel, pulling it down towards him, with what appears to be the help of a woman in a matching blue shirt sitting next to him.
Sock’s appeal for the teenager to contact him prompted the organisers of other Grand Slam tournaments to come forward with offers of towels, including the US Open and the Australian Open.
And the maker of the Wimbledon towels, Christy, followed suit, stating: “We would love to help out.”
Mary Jane Orman, Sock’s agent, said that the teenager had subsequently got in touch with the player.
“The boy messaged Jack directly on Instagram,” she said. “He has gone home now but Jack invited him to his matches and said he will send him a towel.”