Alexander Zverev was left furming after the chair umpire stopped play due to a feather at the Australian Open on Tuesday. (AP)
Number two seed Alexander Zverev was at the receiving end of a rather unusual stoppage in play during his Australian Open 2025 quarter-final against Tommy Paul on Tuesday when a bird’s feather was enough to raise the temperatures at Melbourne Park.
Down 4-2 in the second set, Zverev was stopped from a point mid-rally when the chair umpire Nacho Forcadel called a let and ordered for a replay of point when he spotted a white feather spiral down towards the German’s eyeline as he was in his backswing motion. Livid with the abrupt stoppage in play, a bemused Zverev said: “What? A feather? Are you insane?”
The umpire began to defend his stance saying, “It is just that is a plastic or something is coming in the middle of the court…”
“There’s millions of them on the court. There’s one there. There’s one there,” Zverev said approaching the official while holding up a feather and pointing at a few others.
Zverev, however, was quick to rebound from the avian menace to storm past American paul into his third Australian Open semi-final with a 7-6 (1), 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-1 victory.
“Yeah, I’ve never had that before that we stop a point because of a feather. So that was new to me,” Zverev laughed off the incident after the match.
“Not sure it was a hindrance to anybody. It’s not like a hard object.
“Like even if the tennis ball hits the feather, it doesn’t really change anything. It doesn’t change the trajectory of the ball or the bounce of the ball or anything like that. But, yeah, I don’t know. Maybe the umpire did the right call and maybe not. I have no idea.”
Zverev was already heated earlier in the game, when a spectator yelled “out” during a point that he lost. Zverev complained about it to Forcadell, who asked the crowd not to shout during points. After losing the following point, Zverev was warned about showing too much frustration.
– With AP inputs
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