Emma Raducanu breezed past Shelby Rogers in two sets to reach the second round of the Australian Open - but it wasn't all plain sailing due to a rogue runaway insect.
The 21-year-old got her 2024 Grand Slam campaign off to a flyer with the 6-3, 6-2 win over her American counterpart in just 76 minutes.
But a small hitch arrived in the second set in the form of a streetwise Australian critter, which scurried and hopped around the court for around a minute before eventually being apprehended.
Play stopped and Raducanu watched as a ball kid chased the audacious intruder around the Rod Laver Arena court.
The cunning creature would wait for the girl to approach it before boinging away at just the right time to evade capture, but eventually, its luck ran out.
After winning the game of cat and mouse, the ball kid swaddled the creepy-crawly in a towel before carrying it off-court while the crowd cheered.
It is unlikely that the bug will face punitive action for the court invasion despite taking a free front-row seat ahead of paying spectators.
As for Raducanu, the draw has opened up for her somewhat as she will now face world number 94 Yafan Wang of China, who upset her opponent, number 22 seed Sorana Cirstea.
Playing her first Slam since this event last year, Raducanu needed to be solid against Rogers, who has not played since Wimbledon and made the sort of errors one might expect after such a long time out.
Raducanu benefitted from the American’s 35 unforced errors but served well towards the end and never looked in danger.
In the end, she set up three match points but only needed one of them to book her place in the second round, which she reached in 2022 and 2023.
Elsewhere, fellow Brits Jack Draper, Katie Boulter, and Cameron Norrie sealed safe passage through to the second round.
However, Andy Murray lost in straight sets to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in what could be his Australian Open swansong.
Murray, 36, has still been ranked in the top 50 up to this week.
Meanwhile, Draper was left with a painful-looking stomach injury and ran off court to throw up immediately after beating Marcos Giron following his first five-set win under the punishing Australian sun.
