#Umpire warns fans after champagne uncorking interrupts serve

One fan at Wimbledon on Sunday chose the absolute worst time to uncork a bottle of champagne.

In the middle of Anastasia Potapova and Mirra Andreeva’s third round match on Sunday, a fan uncorked a bottle of champagne right as Potapova was about to serve. That led to a rather unique warning from Australian umpire John Blom.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please, if you are opening a bottle of champagne, don’t do it as the players are about to serve,” Blom said over the microphone, drawing applause and a chuckle from Potapova.

Now the incident could have been much worse. In 2019, a champagne cork actually flew onto the court during a match between Benoit Paire and Jiri Vesely, which was a much, much larger disturbance. Novak Djokovic had his match that year with Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz briefly paused after a cork flew onto their court, and a doubles match had the same issue.

Though official rules state that all corked bottles must be opened before taking them into the stands, it’s clearly not enforced very well. Fans just need to pick and choose their moments better.

Andreeva beat Potapova in straight sets on Sunday, 6-2, 7-5, to advance into the fourth round. She’ll now take on American Madison Keys, who beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-1 in her third round match.