Alexander Zverev's complete tirade against umpires at Shanghai Masters: From blaming officiating for French Open final loss to complaining about injuries & illness
Controversy broke out at the 2024 Shanghai Masters on October 8 during the third-round fixture between Alexander Zverev and Tallon Griekspoor. The German had an argument with chair umpire Lahyani regarding a call.
During the first set of the match, the chair umpire made a call against the German player, citing that a particular shot had bounced twice before he returned it on the other side of the net. Even though replays proved the call to be a correct one, Alexander Zverev went on an explosive rant against all the umpires.
"How on earth are you calling that? I got the ball completely clean?" Zverev shouted. "Let me say something, you guys umpires are f***ing up the whole tournament this year. Completely," said Zverev during the match
During his rant, Alexander Zverev also alluded to the French Open final where a wrong umpire call was made against him in a clutch situation in the fifth set. In the title clash against Carlos Alcaraz, when the score was 2-1 (15-40) in favor of the Spaniard in the fifth set, Alcaraz made a second serve, which Zverev believed to be out.
However, in absence of the electronic technologies at the French Open, the Umpire's call of "In" stood and the German player lost the match.
During his outburst in Shanghai, Zverev brought up the Roland Garros incident again, saying:
"I have a Grand Slam final, I lose it because of you guys' mistake. I’m here running my a*** off with the illness, you guys still do mistakes," Zverev added.
Zverev drew the attention to the rigors of the tennis schedule for the year, and that he has been playing through illnesses and injuries throughout the season. The German player claimed that such umpiring decisions were not acceptable when the players were putting in so much effort.
"I've played more than 80 matches this year, with injuries, with illness, with everything. And I cannot be bothered to go to China in October for you to screw up this. This is not possible. I’ve been playing for nine months now," he added.
However, Alexander Zverev was able to put the controversy behind and emerge victorious against his Dutch opponent, winning 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (5).
Alexander Zverev has not been the only one in controversy in Shanghai this year
The 2024 Shanghai Masters has been marred by controversies, apart from that of Alexander Zverev's especially in the last two days. The first controversy started at the match between Stan Wawrinka and Flavio Cobolli in the second round.
During the second game in the the third set with the Swiss player serving, the chair umpire called the Italian's return wide but made an error while updating the scoreboard, awarding the point to Cobolli. As a result, the Italian made the only break of serve in the match, winning 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-3.
This incident was followed by controversy in the third-round match between Frances Tiafoe and Roman Safiullin. During a tense third set, with the score being 5-5 in the tiebreaker, chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote called a time violation against Tiafoe and canceled the American player's first serve.
This gave Safiullin an opening, and he won the match 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5). After the match, the former World No. 10 openly admonished the umpire using expletive language.
"F**k You" said the American player
The Shanghai Masters is set to resume on October 9, with the Round of 16 fixtures featuring all the top five seeds in the tournament.