Alexander Zverev | US Open: “Hitler sentence!” Alexander Zverev comments on the fan derailment
Alexander Zverev
Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev’s round of 16 appearance at the US Open was disrupted by a fan derailment.
“He just said the most famous Hitler sentence ever. That is unacceptable,” said Zverev to the referee during the fourth set against the Italian Jannik Sinner. A man wearing a blue baseball cap was expelled from the stadium during the next break.
After his five-set win, Zverev went into more detail about the scene. “The man started singing the then national anthem – Deutschland uber alles. That was a bit too much. I love it when fans are loud, I love it when fans are emotional. But I think since I’m German and not really proud of that story, it’s not a really great thing. If I just don’t react, I think it’s bad on my part,” he said.
The audience at the evening sessions in the 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium had recently come under criticism. Former Australian professional player Rennae Stubbs wrote shortly after the Zverev incident that there were fans at the evening training sessions who were “not good”.
“I love the fans but there are some bad characters right now,” Stubbs wrote on X (formerly Twitter):
“Last night I got thrown a drink over my head by a drunk fan who was arguing with a friend. Now “Do we have someone shouting Hitler insults! Come on, guys.”
US Open:
Laura Siegemund is also disappointed by fans
In the first week Laura Siegemund also reacted disappointed to the audience. “I’m very, very disappointed with the way people treated me. I’m a fighter. I never did anything against the audience. They had no respect for me,” said Siegemund in tears after the loss to Crowd favorite Coco Gauff (USA).