Australian Open TV viewers left baffled as players disappear in spooky illusion but organisers reveal why

AUSTRALIAN OPEN viewers were left baffled after players seemed to just disappear in front of their eyes.

In oddly-terrifying scenes, tennis stars on the outside courts of this year’s first Grand Slam appeared to vanish into thin air live on TV.

One incident saw No31 seed Hubert Hurkacz walk across the court and suddenly vanish during his thrilling comeback five-setter against Dennis Novak.

The mystifying scenes left fans rubbing their eyes and furiously looking for answers on social media.

But it’s nothing as dark as Thanos clicking his fingers, but more a mere optical illusion brought on by condensation on the TV camera lenses.

Tournament organisers were quick insisted magic played no part – coming up with a more logical (boring) reason for the mysterious disappearing act.

The Australian Open account tweeted: “After yesterdays 43mm of rain, condensation appeared on some of the camera lenses that feed our on-court match streams.

“This appeared on different cameras at different times as conditions warmed up.

“Weve been replacing lenses throughout the day – at the same time ensuring continuous match coverage – and will have them all fixed as soon as we can.”

Frustratingly for officials, the bead of condensation appeared on the middle of the main camera being used to broadcast matches across the globe.

In a bid to tackle the issue, they were forced to switch to a much lower camera angle – but fans left utterly perplexed.

One viewer wrote: “What the hell is wrong with the cameras on all of the outside courts?

“It looks like every lens has a smudge on it in same spot.”