Associated Press2 Minute Reading
NEW YORK — A fan was ejected from a US Open tennis match early Tuesday morning after German player Alexander Zverev complained the man used language from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Zverev, the No. 12 seed, serving at 2-2 in the fourth set of his match against No. 6 Jannik Sinner when he suddenly went to chair umpire James Keothavong and pointed at the fan, who was sitting in a section behind the umpire.
“He just said the most famous Hitler phrase in the world,” Zverev told Keothavong. “This is unacceptable.”
Keothavong turned around and asked the fan to introduce himself then asked the fans to respect the two players. During the changeover shortly after Zverev served, the fan was recognized by others sitting near him, and he was removed by security.
“A bad comment was directed at Alexander Zverev,” United States Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier said. “The fan was identified and escorted from the stadium.”
Zverev said after the match that he had made fans make lewd comments before but did not involve Hitler.
“He started singing Hitler’s song from before,” Zverev explained. “It is ‘Deutschland über alles,’ and it is too much.
“But I think he’s been in the game for a long time, though. I don’t mind it. I like it when the fans are loud. I like it when the fans are emotional. Historically, it’s never been a good thing to do.” , and I think he was 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 not good from my side.”
Zverev went on to drop that set, when he began to struggle in the humid conditions after Sinner cramping badly in the third set. But Zverev recovered to win the fifth set, ending the match that lasted 4 hours, 41 minutes at around 1:40 a.m. He will next play the defending US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.
Zverev said it was not difficult to dismiss the fan’s comments.
“It’s his loss, to be honest, not being able to witness the last two sets of that match,” Zverev said.