A sun to tease your neck and ideal heat for the lift of earthlings. Guy Den Ouden spent a quiet day at the Challenger in Brazzaville when his first round match with Ivan Denisov was interrupted by detonations and the sound of an agitated crowd outside. Consequence of this heckling, a thick cloud of white smoke ends up flying over the eight shorts of the complex. End of the video.
The networks being what they are, the excitement was immediate, letting fear a situation of imminent danger for the players, trapped in the midst of an armed battle, on the basis of a fairly simple geographic misunderstanding: many have many have Confused the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latter being affected by a conflict in the East between the armed forces of the DRC and the M23, supported by the Rwandan army. “Our tournament is in Congo Brazzaville and we can confirm that everything is calm,” the organization told 20 Minutes.
The military used tear gas by mistake
All this is very nice, the fact remains that the explosions and the smoke were real. It was a military exercise. “There was an exchange of fire between soldiers,” says the Algerian Samir Hamza Reguig, beaten by Geoffrey Blancaneaux. Nothing serious, the soldiers were training. They just sent tear gas. The soldiers were wrong, instead of triggering the training gas, they triggered the real gas. »»
The players were quickly evacuated from the courts, some complaining of irritation and breathing difficulties, like the Brazilian Paulo Saraiva. “My nose was burning, I had trouble breathing. It was not pleasant, but the tournament staff did everything very well. Everyone was quickly evacuated to the players’ room, where we remained locked up in a safe place for twenty minutes. I stayed ten minutes more than the others because I had headaches. The matches then resumed normally and the day of matches was able to resume. “Tomorrow (Wednesday) The tournament resumes,” confirms the Brazilian.
“The tournament is great and we eat for not much”
Mexican Rodrigo Alujas also had “stingy eyes” but tends to play down. “I was not afraid. It was an anecdotal event. I think we should not incriminate the challenger, which is an excellent organization. The tournament is great, the shorts are super good, people are very nice and the country is inexpensive. You can eat there for not much outside the hotel. It’s a tournament I will do again, yes! »»
Sporting too, the value for money is one of the advantages of the Brazzaville tournament. 50 ATP points at the key and a prize money of 60,000 dollars for a tray below certain future qualifications, it is worth the detour. And too bad if you have to sacrifice your nasal partition in history.
