Every Grand Slam final I play, I lose because of you guys

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday October 9, 2024

Tuesday in Shanghai was a day of meltdowns. We brought you first Frances TiafoeS ‘ embarrassing tirade after a time violation call affected his game. Now we bring you Alexander Zverevwho launched a heated monologue at referee Mohamed Layhani in Shanghai after it was ruled – correctly – that he had hit a ball after a double bounce during his match with Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.

Zverev cruised to victory in three hard-fought sets, 7-6(6) 2-6 7-6(5), but not before taking 90 seconds to work out his frustrations.

What did we learn?

At the end of a long season, the World No. 3 has not overcome the challenge he faced at Roland-Garros during his final with Carlos Alcaraz. Remember the Spaniard double-faulted to give Zverev a break at 2-all in the fifth set of that thrilling encounter, but was awarded an ace after the fact after the chair umpire called the point. Alcaraz held a 3-1 lead and went on to win the title.

“Every Grand Slam final I play, I lose it because of you,” a frustrated Zverev said during his speech. He also said that he is tired after 80 games and added that he was kicking his ass at 21:00 while Lajhani was just sitting comfortably in his chair.

“Every Grand Slam final I play, I lose because of you guys” (referring to the 2nd who played almost 4 years in the US Open and RG) says Zverev as he thinks he took the ball with one jump.

Replay shows it was very clearly a double jump. pic.twitter.com/OYjZYleqBc

— TennisONE App (@TennisONEApp) October 8, 2024

You can hardly blame Zverev for still being upset about the call in Paris, but he was wrong about Layhan’s call in Shanghai. The German was nowhere near getting the ball before he bounced a second time.

After nearly 80 matches on tour this season, Zverev is clearly on fumes. And, as we saw Tuesday with Tiafoe’s outburst, he’s not the only one.