Umpire Alison Hughes narrowly escaped injury after a spider-cam crashed into the sun shield above her chair. Hughes was officiating the women’s singles fourth round match between Ashleigh Barty and Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open and the incident occurred minutes after the match was concluded. 15th seed Barty beat five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to enter the quarter-final where she will face Czech Petra Kvitova. In the immediate aftermath of the match, Barty acknowledged the crowd and was walking back to her bench. Questions were also raised on the safety of spider-cams with one user pointing out that the speed of the device could have been fatal for the chair umpire had it collided with her.

Source: Indian Express January 20, 2019 08:11 UTC