Alexander Zverev has called out the late-night scheduling of his match against
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the ATP
China Open in Beijing.
The World No. 10 came back from a set down to dominate the second part of his Round of 16 match against the Spaniard and win 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1. This came after Zverev performed a similar feat against Diego Schwartzman in the first round, defeating the Argentinian player 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-4.
However, his second match at the ATP 500 event was made more difficult by the fact that the match did not start until midnight. This was due to a long battle earlier in the day on Diamond court between Nicolas Jarry and Matteo Arnaldi in which the first two sets both went to a tiebreak before the Chilean player secured victory in the decider.
Zverev suggests alternative way to deal with delays
After the battle between Jarry and Arnaldi, Daniil Medvedev took to the court to oust Alex de Minaur in straight sets before Zverev and Fokina's encounter finally got underway at midnight.
During his on-court interview after the match, Zverev criticized the late-night scheduling which saw their match finish at 2:40 am.
"I’m happy with the win. Obviously, it’s difficult to play til 3 am," he said.
The 26-year-old also suggested an alternative way to deal with delays, saying that he would have been happy to play the match on a different court.
"I’m not sure it was the right call to keep us on this court. I think we should’ve changed courts. We should’ve gone on. There’s so many great courts on the stadium. So many opportunities where we could’ve played. I’m not sure we should’ve waited til past midnight to start the match, to be honest," he added.
Last year, Zverev criticized the ATP for their late-night match scheduling at the 2022 Madrid Open after he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Masters 1000 tournament. This came after his semi-final match against Stefanos Tsitsipas started around 11 pm and didn't end until after 1 am.
"The ATP's job was an absolute disgrace this week," Zverev said at the time.
