Status: 05.09.2023 8:12 a.m
Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev is in the quarterfinals of the US Open, which is now against Carlos Alcaraz. The hard-fought 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2, 4: 6, 6: 3 against the Italian Jannik Sinner was overshadowed by a serious derailment by a fan.
Zverev hardly found the strength to cheer, but then he roared his joy into the New York night sky: The Hamburger is in the quarter-finals of the US Open for the third time. The German number one prevailed in a tennis drama lasting 4:41 hours despite obvious physical problems against the South Tyrolean Sinner, who was also clearly injured, and is now facing a Herculean task against the Spanish title defender Carlos Alcaraz.
2020 finalist Zverev made his mark with hard-fought victory against the Wimbledon semi-finalist and celebrated his second win at a Major against a top-ten opponent (L13). The 26-year-old reached his tenth quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament, catching up with Michael Stich. As the best German, Boris Becker reached the round of the last eight 23 times at the four most important tournaments in Melbourne, Paris, Wimbledon and New York.
“Germany above everything”: Spectator derailment at Zverev match
Zverev’s triumph was overshadowed by a verbal derailment by a spectator in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. “He said the most well-known Hitler sentence,” said the 26-year-old from Hamburg in the middle of the fourth set of the game to the chair umpire and pointed in the direction of the stands. “It’s unacceptable, it’s unbelievable.” In the TV pictures, a viewer can be heard shouting “Germany above everything”.
Referee James Keothavong had the man identified in the lower tier of Arthur Ashe Stadium during the ensuing break, with other spectators pointing in his direction. When the score was 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2, 3: 2, the spectators left the stands accompanied by security forces.
The audience at the evening sessions in the 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium was recently criticized. 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 yelling insults to Hitler! Come on guys.”
Further information
On August 11, 1922, Reich President Ebert designated the Deutschlandlied as the anthem of the Weimar Republic – with all three stanzas. more
Zverev and Sinner go the full distance
For Zverev, the duel with Sinner was the first appearance in the mighty Arthur Ashe Stadium this year. After the convincing four-set win against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow, he was aware that he needed a further increase in order to be able to continue dreaming. “I expect it to be incredibly difficult,” he said before the game, which he went into with a 3-1 record in a direct comparison. He should be right.
“It’s real drama, we’ll be talking about this match for a long time,” said Boris Becker on Sportdeutschland.TV after more than three and a half hours had been played: “Like two heavyweight boxers in the tenth round.” With a better end for Zverev.
Sinner comes back twice against Zverev
But the problem with regard to the Alcaraz match, which easily solved its task against the Italian Matteo Arnaldi and played much earlier in the day, is large. From the start, the sixth in the world rankings, Sinner, who had also registered his claims for New York with a Masters triumph in Toronto in August, and Zverev fought an intense duel that was a difficult challenge for both professionals.
At temperatures just under 30 degrees, Zverev, currently number twelve in the world, initially offered a better balance of security and aggressiveness, grabbed a break to make it 5: 4 and got through it. Sinner reacted brilliantly, could not be slowed down in the second set despite a short treatment on the thigh and managed to equalize the set after 1:50 hours with an ace. His crazy fan club “Carota Boys” cheered in the stands.
Zverev in the quarterfinals now against Alcaraz
But the physical problems also became more and more visible. After a break from Zverev to make it 3: 2 in the third round, Sinner hobbled to his bench. He was now going strong for quick point gains, but recovered after another treatment at the beginning of the fourth set. Now Zverev himself seemed clearly battered, leaned forward again and again during the short breaks, and it turned into a highly exciting drama. But the Olympic champion made the decisive turnaround. Now it’s against Alcaraz.
Further information
The Hamburg tennis pro had a lot of trouble in the second round. Zverev’s next opponent is Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. more
The tennis Olympic champion from Hamburg defeated the Australian Aleksandar Vukic 6: 4, 6: 4, 6: 4 in New York. more
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Sports current | 05.09.2023 | 09:17 am
Keywords for this article
Tennis
2023-09-05 06:00:00
#Open #Zverev #quarterfinals #fan #derailed #defeated #Sinner
