A match at the Australian Open had to be suspended on Wednesday after blistering on the court caused 'bubbles' to form on the surface before being moved to a different arena altogether.
Matt Ebden and Rohan Bopanna were up against Argentinian duo Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni when the Aussie tennis ace raised some concerns on the court to the umpire.
Ebden could be seen stamping his foot on the ground and pointing out various different spots of concern.
The match had only just got underway before it was halted at 2-1 in the first set for the surface to be further investigated.
The commentary team soon noted that the players were reporting 'bubbling' on the court.
Matt Ebden originally didn't want to move courts
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John Millman explained the rare phenomenon occurs when moisture gets stuck underneath the hard court surface.
He said: "The ball doesn't bounce on it, it really affects the bounce. If the bubbles get big enough it can actually be quite difficult to move on [too]."
Ebden continued to inspect the surface and could be heard saying: "If a serve hits that, that's a problem."
Australian Open officials were called to inspect the court further with a long delay to the match while a decison was made on what to do next.
It was eventually decided to relocate the doubles quarter-final clash from Court Three to Margaret Court Arena.
Ebden and Bopanna were able to overcome the bizarre interruption by winning in straight sets and reaching the semi-finals.
“I’ve played here since I was 13 years old, 14 years old in Melbourne at these courts,” Ebden said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen bubbles in the courts here. Around the world, sometimes it happens. But here, I’ve never seen it.
“Yeah, it was a bit surprising, I would say. And a little bit frustrating.”
The bubbles were all over the court
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Ebden also explained that he wasn't in favour of moving courts originally and took some convincing from his doubles partner to agree.
“Even out there, we wanted to just flatten them (bubbles on court) and play on,” Ebden said.
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A decision was made to move away from the court
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“We’d already started the match, better to just keep going. We’re all warm and playing out there.
“So a little bit frustrating, I guess. But Bopps said earlier, experience would show us better that we don’t play that much with bubbles everywhere and keep worrying that they’re there, let’s get a clean court and move.
“It was the best decision, I think. We moved on and that was it.”
