PARIS– This one’s for the birds: A pigeon landed on the court during a French Open Saturday’s match, prompting the chair umpire to use a towel to rescue the fallen birds.
The pigeon fell onto the red clay of Court Suzanne Lenglen – and remained on the ground – during an exchange in the fourth set of Daniil Medvedev, 2021 US Open champion third round victory over Tomas Machac at Roland Garros.
Chair umpire Damien Dumusois, um, sprung into action, descending from his perch and grabbing a white towel. He approached the bird, which appeared injured and tried to escape. Dumusois gave chase and ended up bending down, using the towel to grab the pigeon with both hands, receiving applause from the spectators.
The officer then took it to a door and handed it to another person, who held the bird aloft, drawing more applause.
Dumusois returned to his seat, stood up and announced that play would resume.
“Yes, I saw that. I think he was struggling a little,” Machac said, probably talking about the pigeon, but also possibly Dumusois. “I don’t know what happened… But you need to concentrate. You can’t try to watch this. It’s difficult, but I tried to concentrate.
The match continued with Medvedev leading 4-3 in the final set, and the fifth-seeded Russian completed his 7-6(4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 victory about 10 minutes later.
Have you seen this before during a match?
“No,” said Machac, a 23-year-old from the Czech Republic who defeated Novak Djokovic last month. “I think it was the first time that happened.”
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AP photographer Jean-François Badias contributed to this report.
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