LONDON (AP) — A protester lit a portion of the court and his arm on fire during a match at the Laver Cup tennis event Friday, hours before Roger Federer was scheduled to play for the final time before retiring.
The episode briefly delayed the action at the start of the second set of Stefanos Tsitsipas' 6-2, 6-1 victory for Team Europe over Diego Schwartzman of Team World at the O2 Arena.
The activist, carrying a lighter and wearing a white T-shirt with a message about private jets, made his way onto the black court and sat down near the net. The person eventually was carried away by security guards.
"It came out of nowhere. ... I never had an incident like this happen on court," Tsitsipas, the runner-up at the 2021 French Open, said afterward. "I hope he's all right."
Tsitsipas spoke to the chair umpire to make sure it would be safe to continue to play and asked that a mark left on the court be cleaned up.
