Alexander Zverev takes another swipe at Wimbledon as grumpy German sent home

Highlights from day 5 at Wimbledon

Alexander Zverev could not resist taking another swipe at Wimbledon organisers after he was beaten in straight sets by Matteo Berrettini on Saturday evening. The latter managed to set up a blockbuster fourth-round meeting with top seed Carlos Alcaraz by downing his German opponent, who conceded the first set thanks to a slow start before falling on the wrong side of two tiebreakers in the second and third.

The match needed to be stopped in the second set due to rain, while there were additional challenges with the low-light conditions at SW19 before and after the enforced break. Zverev was unhappy with the way proceedings were handled and blamed the umpire for not listening to his advice when quizzed on what happened in his post-match press conference.

“I think both of us played much better after the break, because it was ridiculously dark before the rain delay,” said Zverev. “We both were saying that to the umpire, but their plan wasn’t to play us till 8.30pm. I don’t know how they wanted to play us more than one hour still.”

The conditions on Court One were arguably even worse after the rain delay, with the grass more slippery than before despite the roof being closed and the arena being illuminated with artificial lighting.

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“Yeah, in the beginning it was a little bit slippery,” added Zverev. “Then I think it got better. In general I think, apart from my side maybe, the break that I got in the first set, I think that was really bad. Apart from that, I think it was a great match.”

Zverev eventually came up just short to Berrettini, who will be hoping to maintain his latest Wimbledon run by springing a surprise on Alcaraz when they face each other on Monday. The Spaniard has only dropped one set throughout the tournament so far and will certainly be a tough opponent for Berrettini, although Zverev believes that the result could go either way if the Italian plays at his best.

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“Today in important moments he played better,” he explained. “Yes, I expected it, and I told him that he can win the tournament if he plays like this. In my opinion. I mean, of course there is other players that are great. He’s playing Alcaraz next. I think he’s a great player as well, but if he plays like this, to be honest, he has chances against anybody.”

Berrettini will be desperate to keep his impressive run going at the All England Club after only recovering from a troublesome injury problem at the start of this week. He withdrew from last year’s tournament due to another injury but managed to get to the final in 2021, although he was soundly beaten by Novak Djokovic on that occasion.

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