Spectator at ATP event in Halle hit by falling advertising banner

A female spectator was taken to hospital after being struck when an advertising banner came loose from the upper tier during Alexander Zverev’s match with Marcos Giron at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

The 62-year-old local woman was sitting in the lower tier and left the OWL Arena holding an ice pack against her neck handed to her by Zverev.

The tournament website said the woman did not suffer any major injuries but was taken to a nearby hospital to be checked “for safety reasons”.

Tournament director Ralf Weber said: “We deeply regret the incident. There has never been anything like this in our 32-year tournament history.”

Weber said he had promised the woman a season ticket for next year as a small token of appreciation.

Event managers Dr Udo Kleine and Uwe Greipel-Dominik said neighbouring boards were checked after the incident before the match was given the go ahead to continue.

A joint statement from Kleine and Greipel-Dominik on the tournament website said: “We suspect that the drumming against the boards caused screws to come loose.

“This must not happen and we apologise. We will also check all the other boards and their fixings immediately after the Zverev match.”

The incident at the ATP 500 grass event round-of-32 tie happened with home favourite Zverev 5-2 ahead and serving for the first set.

Second seed Zverev went on to triumph in 6-2 6-1 in returning to winning ways just three days after his Stuttgart Open final defeat to Taylor Fritz.

Eighth seed Karen Khachanov also impressed with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Libema Open finalist Zizou Bergs to set up a second-round meeting with Felix Auger-Aliassime.