An unexpected — and deadly — visitor in the form of a snake showed up at a match between 30-year-old former US Open champion Dominic Thiem and the younger 20-year-old James McCabe in Brisbane, Australia, interrupting the game for 40 minutes. (See video below, posted by Gaspar Ribeiro Lança.)

While the two players were going at it in the Brisbane International tennis tournament, spectators noticed an extremely venomous, 20-inch eastern brown snake making its way onto the court. Security immediately showed up while a snake wrangler came to take the creature away.

"I really love animals, especially exotic ones. But they said it was a really poisonous snake and it was close to the ballkids, so it was a really dangerous situation," said Thiem, according to The Independent. Interestingly, Thiem had been losing the game before the invader was spotted, but after the snake was removed, he "fought back in the second set before sealing a 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 win to reach the main draw of the Australian Open tune-up tournament."

You cannot make this up: a 50cm eastern brown snake — considered the second most venomous snake in the world — interrupted the Thiem-McCabe qualifying battle in Brisbane 😳(video via Lblklk on Reddit) pic.twitter.com/QI5izBr6HN— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança () December 30, 2023