Zverev, Tsitsipas and the ceremonial opening of the secondary theaters of war
Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas mastered their second-round tasks at the ATP Masters tournament in Cincinnati in a rather unspectacular manner. What is more remarkable is how the two protagonists dealt with the background noise from outside.
by Dietmar Kaspar
last edit:
Aug 17, 2023, 11:05 pm
In addition to show and glamour, the fourth Grand Slam tournament of the year in New York has always been accompanied by the attribute of being by far the loudest major of the year. In this respect, from a mental point of view, the players also need to be relaxed about the verbal excesses of the audience or the show elements on the part of the organizers.
Zverev is bothered by music recordings
As for the assembled world elite, the Masters event in Cincinnati is also the last big test for Alexander Zverev before the Grand Slam showdown in the Big Apple. After a successful demonstration against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, Hamburg's nerves in the second round match against Yoshihito Nishioka seemed anything but stable.
Scheduled on Court 4, which grieved the former champion in the US state of Ohio from the start, Zverev had to endure music recordings from the big show courts again and again, which, in contrast to his usual matches in the big arenas, did not affect the course of his meeting were coordinated.
There would have been numerous opportunities to denounce this fact to the referee during a break in the change of sides. It makes sense that the patience of the Olympic champion tore during his service game. After verbally voicing this issue with referee Aurelie Tourt for the first time, he followed up with a double fault at 15:40 in the game. This opened up the big discussion at the next change of sides: "I know it's not your fault. But it's ridiculous since we're playing a Masters tournament here, not a 250. I've won this tournament before, it's not just a random tournament that we're playing here."
Supervisor Gerry Armstrong, who was consulted by the game director on the pitch, also heard the description of the 26-year-old Zverev: "Gerry, we're playing in the Masters Series here. Ruud, Rune, Monfils, who, like me, are on this court today, are also players who have either won a Masters tournament or have been on the tour for more than 10 years.” The experienced supervisor tried to calm the German down, but also made it clear to him that nothing can be changed about this fact. After all, tempers calmed down again and Zverev was able to complete his task lackluster but successfully.
Tsitsipas in dispute with a spectator
Stefanos Tsitsipas had problems of a different kind in the encounter against US youngster Ben Shelton, who could be sure of the support of the home crowd. The Greek waved his racquet around before a serve, which suggested he was defending against an insect. However, when the two-time Monte Carlo winner lacked the visual confirmation of the buzzing troublemaker, he got to the bottom of the matter more closely. He located the troublemaker in the stands, but without finding out exactly who was preventing him from continuing to play successfully
Tsitsipas then sought a conversation with referee Nacho Forcadell: "Behind me is a person imitating a bee. Do you think that's ok?". After a brief chat with the referee with no result, he returned to the baseline and, in conversation with the fans, tried to find out who was causing the disruption. When he then realized that it was one of the women present, he returned to the referee's chair and reopened the discussion: "That has never happened to me in my career. I know they support the other. It's that lady over there. I want them out.” Here, too, things finally calmed down and Tsitsipas was able to defeat his 20-year-old opponent in two tight sentences.