Fowl play as Alexander Zverev has to help clean up bird poo on court as his match against Britain's Cameron Norrie gets halted

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Cameron Norrie's bid to reach the fourth round of the 2026 Australian Open was interrupted three times as birds made a mess on the court, much to the amusement of the fans. Great Britain's Norrie was taking on Alexander Zverev on John Cain Arena, but play had to be stopped so the court could be given a tidy up. Zverev helped out as he grabbed a towel and cleaned up the surface behind his baseline.

Watch strange scenes as Zverev joins bird poo clean-up effort as Norrie match halted

Video credit: TNT Sports

Tennis players are no strangers to having to deal with difficult situations - but things got unusually messy for Alexander Zverev and Cameron Norrie during their third-round match at the Australian Open.

Third-seed Zverev and Great Britain's Norrie were doing battle on John Cain Arena when play had to be paused early in the third set.

The reason? A bird perched high above had made a mess at the back of the court.

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Norrie alerted the umpire, who sent out a ball kid with a towel to clean things up.

"Looks like a bit of maintenance is needed at the back of the court," commentator Mikey Perera said on TNT Sports.

"I think it might be from the local wildlife. It’s an all-encompassing job being a ball kid - got to do a bit of everything. Got to get your hands dirty in this job."

Play quickly resumed after the mess was cleaned up - but the birds weren’t done.

Watch as bird poo causes havoc with Norrie and Zverev match halted

Video credit: TNT Sports

Later in the third set, with Norrie serving at 5-3 down, the ball kid was called out again to clean up.

Zverev also grabbed a towel on this occasion and did some mopping up behind his baseline.

"This is the natural world," Perera said.

"Zverev is going to take things into his own hands here. Well done."

Co-commentator Jodie Burrage added: "I’m not sure what they can do about this… it’s distracting for Norrie with this scoreline."

Norrie couldn’t hold his serve as he was broken to lose the third set.

Zverev then ran away with the fourth, but before booking his place in the next round and ending British interest in the singles, he had to clean up again.

Serving with a 30-0 lead at 5-1, Zverev got another towel from the umpire and cleaned up around the baseline.

"A little more maintenance to do, thanks to the birds above us," said Perera.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

It is not the first time that Zverev has had to deal with bird mess at the Australian Open.

When he was facing Michael Mmoh in 2023, a bird pooed on Zverev's head during the match.

The German seemed to see the funny side of it as he smiled and cleaned his hair with a towel. However, it did not bring him any luck as he was beaten in four sets.

Zverev is bidding to win his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

He made the final last year, losing to Jannik Sinner, and has made two other Grand Slams finals, at the US Open and the French Open.

Zverev faces 18th seed Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round in Melbourne.

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