There was chaos at the US Open when officials at the Hawkeye base were evacuated from their offices.

When a fire alarm went off, employees working at the electronic call system control center left their workstations.

This resulted in games being temporarily halted and players being forced to wait on the pitch while the system was down.

Caroline Wozniacki and Beatriz Haddad Maia were in the middle of the first set of their fourth-round match when shouts of “stop” were suddenly heard from the court. The umpire was trying to figure out what was going on when play was halted.

And it quickly emerged that the building housing the official Hawkeye system team had been evacuated. “Literally the fire alarm went off here outside our production office, the fire alarm went off there and people were evacuated,” said Naomi Cavaday in the Sky Sports commentary.

Wozniacki and Haddad Maia quickly rushed to the net and the referee explained the problem to the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, the system is down at the moment, so we will be stopping the game shortly,” announced Marijana Veljovic.

Behind-the-scenes footage showed empty chairs in the Hawkeye office as the fire alarm caused the game to be suspended in all seats. Wozniacki paced the floor of Louis Armstrong Stadium and declared, “This is a first.”

In his comment, Cavaday continued: “All members of the Hawkeye team who operate the power line calling system have been asked to leave the building and evacuate. This means we do not have a Hawkeye system and therefore no one can call the lines.”

“The referee can’t do it alone, so we just have to wait until the system is working again or, if it takes a while, maybe find some linesmen.”