When Dominic Thiem was winning the Brisbane International qualifying tournament against James McCabe, a very poisonous snake disrupted play. The play was interrupted for forty minutes as a qualified snake-catcher carefully removed the reptile.
Thiem expressed his thoughts after the incident and said: “I love animals, especially exotic ones. But they said it was a really poisonous snake and it was close to the ball kids, so it was a really dangerous situation. It’s something that has never happened to me and is something I’ll never forget.”
The reptile, which was about 50 centimetres in length, was recognized as an extremely poisonous eastern brown snake.
After the break, Thiem bounced back to win 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 and move on to the second and last round of Brisbane International qualifying.
You cannot make this up: a 50cm eastern brown snake — considered the second most venomous snake in the world — interrupted the Thiem-McCabe qualifying battle in Brisbane 😳
(video via Lblklk on Reddit) pic.twitter.com/QI5izBr6HN
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) December 30, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieRJ475UI6E
Thiem in Brisbane, ranking, and results in 2023
LLLLLLWLWL Now ranked no.98, the Austrian has an overall 2-0 match record in 2023. Dominic is participating in Brisbane where he defeated the world no.272 James McCabe 2-6 7-64 6-4 and the world no.135 Giulio Zeppieri 3-6 6-4 6-4.
Dominic Thiem will square off with the world no.670 Rafael Nadal in the 1st round. Their current record is 9-6 for Nadal.
Dominic won 17 titles in his career: 4 on hard courts, 10 on clay courts, 2 on indoor courts and 1 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
