Alexander Zverev has been dumped out of the
Rome Open with the German falling in an epic battle with
Lorenzo Musetti but he also took time during the tie to vent his frustration in particular at the tennis balls.
Zverev's campaign ended in frustration as he lost to the home hero. He joins Jannik Sinner who could yet be a final opponent if he gets past Carlos Alcaraz in a home hero frenzy.
But Zverev risked getting a code violation as he vented his anger at the chair umpire. He questioned why the players were being forced to compete with balls that were 'too slow' and the kind they played with as kids.
“It’s impossible to play tennis with this s***, if this is entertaining tennis I don’t know what the f**k we’re doing. I’m tired of this s***," he said.
Umpire told him then to watch his language. But he replied with “I don’t care, give me a warning, you cannot hit a winner of the ground with these balls” before saying “We used to play with these balls at 8 years old”.
But this frustration didn't help him as he was already 7-6 down and he was 2-1 up in the second but lost 6-4.