A female spectator was taken to hospital after being struck when an advertising
banner came loose from the first tier during Alexander Zverev’s match with Marcos Giron in Halle on Wednesday.

With home favourite Zverev leading Giron 5-2 and 15-30 during their round of 32 match, play was halted when a loud bang was heard in the arena followed by a commotion of noise.

Images showed a piece of advertising board fell above the first tier of the stand onto spectators sitting below.

In a statement, the tournament said a 62-year-old woman from Halle, who was sitting in the lower tier was struck but fortunately, she didn’t suffer any major injuries.

After recovering from the shock, she was able to leave the stadium on her own with an ice pack on her neck handed to her by Zverev. She was taken to the local hospital in Halle for safety reasons.

“Something like this has never happened in our 32-year tournament history. We deeply regret the incident,” said tournament director Ralf Weber, who personally checked on the spectator’s condition at the medical centre and promised her a season ticket for next year as a small token of appreciation.

Event managers Dr Udo Kleine and Uwe Greipel-Dominik said neighbouring boards were checked after the incident before the match was given the go ahead to continue. “We suspect that the drumming against the cushions caused screws to come loose.

“This should not happen, and we apologise. We will also check all other cushions and their fastenings immediately after the Zverev match. The safety of our spectators is our top priority.”

How the incident unfolded…

Jonathan Overend, commentating for Sky Sports, said: “There’s a disturbance in the crowd. A bit of the board has fallen off there. You can see it has come down into the seats.

“That could have been exceedingly nasty and if someone has been hit by that board falling… It looks like that row of seats behind [the gentleman] with glasses is unoccupied and fortunately so because that looks like the row the board fell into.”

He added: You do not expect to be sitting in a stadium watching a tennis match and something like that happens right next to you.

“There is a couple who are receiving attention. It appears the board has come down in the row behind them.

“There’s medical staff on site and I’m sure they will undergo some precautionary tests backstage at the very least. You just don’t expect that to happen, ever!”

On court, Zverev finished the match with 23 winners in the 79-minute contest where Giron struggled to match the power of the German’s first serve and had no answer when his opponent’s returns found all corners of the court.

World No 3 Zverev, still nursing the disappointment of Sunday’s Stuttgart Open final defeat by Taylor Fritz, showed no mercy with a comfortable 6-2 6-1 victory.

“It was a great match for me, I thought it was quite high level. Maybe he wanted to play a bit better than he did, but all in all I felt like I didn’t let him play that well, which was important for me,” Zverev said.

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