Alexander Zverev called out the Beijing organizers after concluding his round-of-16 match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at around 2:40 am local time. In the early hours of Sunday, Zverev defeated Davidovich Fokina 6-7 (4) 6-2 6-1. “Obviously, it’s difficult to play until 3:00 am. I’m not sure it was the right call to keep us on this court. I think we should’ve changed courts. We should’ve gone on. There’s so many great courts on the stadium. So many opportunities where we could’ve played. I’m not sure we should’ve waited until past midnight to start the match, to be honest,” Zverev said.
Alexander Zverev© Getty Images Sport – Emmanuel Wong
Zverev experienced a similar situation at the 2022 Madrid Masters
In Madrid last year, Zverev had two late finishes before getting destroyed with a 3-6 1-6 score by Carlos Alcaraz in the final. After losing the 2022 Madrid final, Zverev ripped the ATP and Madrid organizers over “a disgraceful” job. “The ATP’s job was an absolute disgrace this week. To play a final against Carlos Alcaraz, who for me is the best player in the world right now, in a Masters 1000 event… it is difficult. I had no coordination. I had no coordination on my serve, I had no coordination on my groundstrokes. I missed two overheads that were super easy because I see the ball and everything is moving in my eyes,” Zverev said after the 2022 Madrid final. In Beijing this year, Zverev again experienced a similar issue and once again finished one of his matches very late. At least, Zverev was able to recover from a set down and avoid a loss against Davidovich Fokina. After losing a very tight first set, Zverev claimed back-to-back breaks in the third and fifth games of the second set en route to forcing a decider. In the third set, Zverev broke Davidovich Fokina to complete a three-set win.