Sonic boom brings French Open to a halt

Опубликованно 01.10.2020 14:40

The second round match between Stan Wawrinka and Dominik Koepfer halted play during the second service game when the blast was heard.

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In the middle of his service routine, Koepfer was startled by the noise that also left those in the stands shaken.

The German star stood on the baseline staring at Wawrinka unsure of what he had just heard as both players looked on in uncertainty.

Fears quickly rose from those in the city of a potential terror attack being the cause of the blast, however those fears were quickly cast aside.

Thankfully the city was not in the throws of a terrorist attack, the noise was caused by none other than a military jet flying overhead and breaking the sound barrier.

Paris police confirmed the cause of the noise and asked for those in the city to not clog the emergency lines.

“A very important noise was heard in Paris and in the Paris region. There is no explosion, it is about a fighter plane which crossed the sound barrier. Don’t clutter up the emergency lines!” they tweeted. Embed iFrame (Custom HTML) Custom HTML 11 / 350

Un bruit tru00e8s important u00e0 u00e9tu00e9 entendu u00e0 Paris et en ru00e9gion parisienne. Il n'y a pas d'explosion, il s'agit d'un avion de chasse qui a franchi le mur du son.N'encombrez pas les lignes de secours !— Pru00e9fecture de Police (@prefpolice) September 30, 2020 Embed iFrame (Custom HTML) Custom HTML 11 / 350

#Paris the sound was a sonic boom from a fighter jet that crossed the sound barrier over french capital.— MIQ (@miqazi) September 30, 2020

Play got back underway shortly after the noise rocked the city with number 16 seed Wawrinka asserting his dominance over Koepfer and racing away to claim the opening set 6-3.

The blast heard overhead may have brought play to a stop, but it was news in the tunnels of Roland Garros that rocked the Grand Slam with former world number one Serena Williams withdrawing ahead of her second round contest.

Williams spoke to media members and said an ongoing achilles injury which had failed to properly heal from the US Open caused her to pull the pin.

“I love playing in Paris, I actually adore the clay it’s so fun for me. I really wanted to give an effort here,” Williams said.

“It’s my achilles that didn’t have enough time to properly heal after the Open. Looking longterm in this tournament will I be able to get through enough matches and so for me I don’t think I could.

“I’m struggling to walk so that’s a tell-tale sign that I should try to recover.” Embed iFrame (Custom HTML) Custom HTML 11 / 350

"I really wanted to give an effort here. (I'm) struggling to walk so that's a tell-tale sign that I should try to recover"Get well soon, Serena!#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/PekxZ4tSzj— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) September 30, 2020

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