US Open expels fan for Hitler regime sentence during Zverev match

NEW YORK — A fan was kicked out of a US Open tennis match early Tuesday morning after German player Alexander Zverev complained the man used language evoking Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Zverev, seeded at No.12, was serving at 2-2 in the fourth set of his match against No.6 Jannik Sinner when he suddenly walked over to referee James Keothavong and pointed at the supporter, who sat in a section behind the referee.

“He just uttered the most famous Hitler phrase that exists in the world,” Zverev told Keothavong. “It’s not acceptable.”

Keothavong turned around and asked the fan to identify themselves, then asked the fans to be respectful to both players. During the changeover shortly after Zverev served, the fan was identified by others sitting near him and he was ejected by security.

“A derogatory remark was directed at Alexander Zverev,” US Tennis Federation spokesman Chris Widmaier said. “The supporter has been identified and escorted out of the stadium.”

Zverev said after the match that he had already asked fans to make derogatory comments, but did not implicate Hitler.

“He started singing Hitler’s anthem which was at the time,” Zverev explained. “It was ‘Deutschland über alles’, and that was a bit too much.

“I think he was involved in the game for a long time. It doesn’t bother me. I like it when the fans are loud. I like it when the fans are emotional. But I think I’m German and I don’t I’m not really proud of that story, that’s not really a good thing to do, and I think he’s sitting in one of the front rows, I think a lot of people have heard that. So if I don’t react, I think it’s bad of me.

Zverev then gave up that set when he started to struggle in the wet conditions after Sinner suffered severe cramping in the third set. But Zverev recovered to win the fifth set, closing the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 which lasted 4 hours and 41 minutes around 1:40 a.m. US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

Zverev said it wasn’t hard to get past the fan’s remark.

“It’s his loss, to be honest, not to attend the last two sets of this match,” Zverev said.