Dominic Thiem’s Brisbane International qualifying match in opposition to Australian James McCabe was suspended for 40 minutes on Saturday after a toxic snake slithered courtside. McCabe had simply wrapped up the primary set 6-2 in opposition to the Austrian 2020 US Open champion when the reptile — reportedly an jap brown snake — was noticed amongst electrical wires on the facet of the courtroom in entrance of spectators. Play was halted till a snake catcher arrived and managed to tease it right into a bag. Eastern browns are able to delivering a potent chew and their venom can lead to progressive paralysis and uncontrollable bleeding, in line with the web site of the Australian Museum.

Watch the video right here:

A snake interrupted a tennis match!
A qualifying match between Dominic Thiem and James McCabe in Brisbane!

Video credit score: u/Lblklk Reddit pic.twitter.com/plBF5GHxrq

— Bloggeroftennis (@bloggeroftennis) December 30, 2023

Australia is house to twenty of the world’s 25 most venomous, however deaths from bites are uncommon.

Thiem finally gained the match to maneuver inside one victory of the primary draw.

Rafael Nadal prevented assembly a seed first up at his comeback match after drawing a qualifier within the Brisbane International, with Russia’s Aslan Karatsev a possible second-round opponent.

The 37-year-old Spaniard has been out of the sport for nearly 12 months following hip surgical procedure after the 2023 Australian Open in January.

It was feared that Nadal, the winner of twenty-two Grand Slam singles titles, would by no means play professionally once more.

However, he has fought his approach again and was granted a wildcard to the season-opening Brisbane International in preparation for the primary Grand Slam of the 12 months at Melbourne Park starting January 14.

While he missed out on going through a seed, there are many completed gamers competing in Brisbane qualifying, together with 2020 US Open champion Thiem and former world quantity eight Diego Schwartzman.

If Nadal advances, he’ll play eighth-seeded Karatsev or Australian wildcard Jason Kubler within the second spherical, with fourth seed Ugo Humbert lurking as a possible quarter-final opponent.

Britain’s Andy Murray drew second-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in an intriguing first-round conflict.

Murray is a two-time winner of the Brisbane International, and beat Dimitrov within the closing in 2013.

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