"Blames everyone but himself, Alexander Zverev can never accept his shortcomings": Fans outraged as German lashes out at umpire in Shanghai Masters 3R

Alexander Zverev lashing out at chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani during his third-round match against Tallon Greikspoor at the 2024 Shanghai Masters has incensed fans. The German complained about a double bounce call that went against him and caused him to go on a tirade.

Zverev, seeded second at the Masters 1000 event, received a bye in the opening round following which he defeated Mattia Belluci in the second round. He then ousted Tallon Griekspoor 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(5) in a topsy-turvy thriller to move ahead.

During the first set at 5-5, the German became enraged when a ball he returned was called for double bounce. Though Zverev was convinced he had returned the ball after a single bounce, the replay showed otherwise, meaning the umpire's call was correct. Following the game, which he lost, he lashed out at chair umpire Lahyani.

During his tirade, he mentioned how his Grand Slam final defeats resulted from errors from umpires, seemingly alluding to the umpire error controversy during his French Open final against Carlos Alcaraz this year.

"I have a Grand Slam final, I lose it because of you guys' mistake. I’m here running my a*** off with the illness, you guys still do mistakes," Alexander Zverev said.

Fans didn't take too kindly to the World No. 3's behavior and took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their dismay. One fan opined that the German would never win a Grand Slam because he didn't dare to accept his mistakes.

“You can just tell Alexander Zverev goes home after losing major finals and blames literally everyone else but himself for failing to win. Man's so small, just such a tiny little man, he can never accept his own shortcomings, and that's why he'll never win a big one,” the fan said.

Another fan felt that even if the umpire was incorrect, the way Alexander Zverev handled the scenario would've still been wrong.

“Replay shows it was so obviously a double bounce. Even if the umpire was wrong, that’s certainly no way to behave so entitled, and then to act so shocked at the outcome of a warning for it,” the fan commented.

Here are some other reactions from the fans to Zverev's behavior in Shanghai.

“‘Every grand slam final’, he means the 2 slam finals?” a fan quipped.

“he’s def referring to that one close call at RG vs Alcaraz but was there a controversial decision during that 2020 USO final vs Thiem i’m forgetting?” a fan questioned.

“No, you lost all Grand Slam finals because you SUCK!,” a fan said.

“This is the manifestation of when Privilege meets Narcissism looks like,” a fan stated.

Interestingly, Shanghai Masters has been marred with controversies surrounding umpires. One of them was a scoring error during Stan Wawrinka's second-round match, while the other was Frances Tiafoe lashing out at the umpire with indecent language.

"I’m not saying I would have won Roland Garros" - Alexander Zverev clarifies his issue with the umpiring

Alexander Zverev (Source: Getty)

A few moments after his tirade, Alexander Zverev clarified that he didn't mean to say that he would've defeated Carlos Alcaraz and lifted La Coupe de Mousquetaires but the mistakes weren't favorable.

He then mentioned how the Asian swing came during the final stretch of the year when all players were exhausted

"I’m not saying I would have won Roland Garros, I’m not saying that. But that, then in Hamburg, I don’t say I would have won the tournament but it didn’t help. Ask us players, the moment we come to Asia, we’re already played all four Grand Slams, we’ve played 80 matches," the 27-year-old said, as quoted by Express.

Alexander Zverev will look to put this incident behind him as he gears up to take on veteran David Goffin in the fourth round of the 2024 Shanghai Masters. This will be the seventh meeting between the two, with the German leading 4-2 in their head-to-head.

The winner of their match will play either seventh seed Taylor Fritz or 12th seed Holger Rune in the quarterfinals.