Alexander Zverev gives frank reason why he had to react after fan uttered ‘most famous Hitler phrase’
Alexander Zverev believes he was left with no choice but to ask security to have a spectator removed from Arthur Ashe Stadium for “singing the anthem of Hitler”.
Play was halted midway during the fourth set of Zverev’s fourth-round match against Jannik Sinner as the German walked to the chair umpire James Keothovang to complain about the unruly fan.
“He just said the most famous Hitler phrase there is in the world. It’s unacceptable. This is unbelievable,” the world No 12 said in disgust.
The man was immediately ejected from the arena and play continued, but Zverev admitted during his post-match press conference that it would have been “bad” if he didn’t stand up and make a noise about the incident.
“He started singing the anthem of Hitler that was back in the day. It was ‘Deutschland über alles’ and it was a bit too much,” the former US Open runner-up said.
“I think he was getting involved in the match for a long time, though. I don’t mind it, I love when fans are loud, I love when fans are emotional.
“But I think me being German and not really proud of that history, it’s not really a great thing to do, and I think him sitting in one of the front rows, I think a lot of people heard it. So if I just don’t react, I think it’s bad from my side.”
Zverev will be hoping there will be no unruly fans during his next match as he will take on defending champion Carlos Alcaraz for a place in the semi-final.
While Alcaraz spent under two hours on court to beat Matteo Arnaldi in the fourth round, the Zverev-Sinner match lasted four hours and 41 minutes.
The German knows he needs to recover quickly if he is to get the better of the current world No 1 on Wednesday.
“I’m here to play. That’s what I love doing. I don’t know how it will end up but I’ll give it my absolute best, like I always do, I will fight until the last moment. Of course I have to recover after this physical match, but I’ll be ready.
“I think everybody, before the tournament, was looking for two matchups: Alcaraz-Novak in the final, and Alcaraz-Sinner in the quarterfinals. So maybe I can make sure that both of those don’t happen. It’s obviously going to be one of the toughest matches for me.”
