Umpire's call cracks up fans in bizarre pre-match scenes

A glitchy fire alarm has caused a bizarre postponement to the start of a men's quarter-final match at the Australian Open on Wednesday.

Korean young gun Hyeon Chung and American surprise packet Tennys Sandgren were set to square off on Rod Laver Arena when a loud siren went off inside Melbourne Park.

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A section of concerned patrons promptly made their way to the exits but the majority of the crowd remained at their seats as confusion reigned inside the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen we're just finding out from the internal office what that message meant," chair umpire James Keothavong announced as the crowd burst out in laughter.

It was obvious the official meant they were finding out whether it was a legitimate alarm or an accident but fans were clearly amused by the wording of the statement.

After all, there was almost no mistaking the fact it was a fire alarm.

A computer malfunction was blamed as the cause for the strange pre-cursor to the match.

It's been an eventful tournament for the chair umpire and that's putting it lightly.

Keothavong copped a tennis ball to the head after a full-blooded backhand from Viktor Troicki in his second round match against Nick Kyrgios.

The official also had to deal with several other bizarre moments in that same match, with the Aussie complaining about a number of weird distractions.

It all started with a helicopter hovering over the top of the stadium, continued with a heckler that disrupted play and concluded with a faulty PA system to add to Keothavong's woes.