Alexander Zverev felt he had to react when he heard a fan use language from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime during his U.S. Open match.
This wasn’t the type of heckling that players are prepared to face and trained to ignore. It highlighted a challenge faced by players and the U.S. Open itself as the event draws the biggest crowds in its history: making sure fans are engaged but not disrupting the tennis — and how to respond when they do.
In the case of Zverev’s match, the spectator was sitting in a crowded section close to the court, where many more people besides the 2020 runner-up could hear the offensive words. So Zverev complained to the chair umpire and the man was ejected.
“At the end of the day I said what I said, the umpire immediately said, ‘OK, we’re going to get him out,’ and that’s it,” Zverev said.
Another fan was thrown out Tuesday when he screamed at a key moment during Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal victory over Taylor Fritz, distracting the 23-time Grand Slam champion enough to cost him that point and then having screams directed back at him when Djokovic lost the next point, too.
“Look, it happens,” Djokovic said. “Sometimes you react, but most of the time you don’t. I speak for myself. Obviously there is, whatever percent of the time, you don’t react. People speak, they move around. You’ve got to be ready for that, particularly in the U.S. Open, especially in the night sessions.”
More than 500,000 fans attended the first week of the tournament, over 200,000 alone during the three-day Labor Day weekend. They were made aware of the code of conduct, which threatens expulsion or even arrest for, among other things, using abusive or threatening language, or behavior that creates a disruptive atmosphere or detrimental experience for players.
That made the ejection of the Zverev fan — who was not arrested — an easy decision. Same with throwing out two men last year when one was giving the other a haircut in the Arthur Ashe Stadium seats.
