By Canadian Press

On a wing and a prayer, pigeon rescued by a French Open chair umpire during match

Jun 1, 2024 | 12:12 PM

PARIS (AP) — This one’s for the birds: A pigeon landed on the court during a French Open match Saturday, leading the chair umpire to use a towel to rescue the fallen fowl.

The pigeon dropped to the red clay at Court Suzanne Lenglen — and remained on the ground — during a changeover in the fourth set of 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev’s third-round victory over Tomas Machac at Roland Garros.

Chair umpire Damien Dumusois, um, flew into action, climbing down from his perch and grabbing a white towel. He approached the bird, which appeared injured and tried hopping away. Dumusois gave chase and eventually bent over, using the towel to grab the pigeon with both hands, earning cheers from spectators.

The official then carried it toward a doorway and handed it off to someone else, who held the bird aloft, drawing more applause.

Dumusois returned to his chair, got back up on his seat and announced that play would resume.

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“Yeah, I saw that. I think he was a little bit struggling,” Machac said, presumably talking about the pigeon, but also possibly about Dumusois. “I don’t know what happened. … But you need to focus. You can’t try to watch that. It’s tough, but I tried to focus.”

The match continued with Medvedev ahead 4-3 in the final set, and the fifth-seeded Russian completed his 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win about 10 minutes later.

Ever seen that before during a match?

“No,” said Machac, a 23-year-old Czech who beat Novak Djokovic last month. “I think it was the first time that this happened.”

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AP Photographer Jean-François Badias contributed to this report.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press