MELBOURNE, Australia — During his quarterfinal match against Tommy Paul at the Australian Open, Alexander Zverev encountered a peculiar situation involving an officiating call triggered by a falling bird’s feather. Both competitors struggled to move on from an earlier incident that was more apparent.
The second-seeded Zverev found himself trailing 4-2 in the second set on Tuesday when Paul managed to fend off two break points. At a crucial moment in the game, chair umpire Nacho Forcadell called a let and ordered a replay of a point after noticing a white feather descend into Zverev’s line of sight as he prepared to strike the ball.
“What? A feather? There are millions of them on the court. There’s one there, and there’s another one there,” Zverev remarked to the official, raising the feather and gesturing at several on the court.
After securing a victory with scores of 7-6 (1), 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-1, Zverev chuckled when questioned about the feather incident, admitting he had never experienced anything like it before.
“I’m not sure it was a hindrance to anyone. A hard object might have a more significant impact, but even if a ball hits the feather, it wouldn’t change much,” Zverev explained.
Earlier in the match, Zverev expressed his frustration when a spectator shouted “out” during a point he lost. He brought this to the attention of Forcadell, who then requested the audience to refrain from yelling during play. Following the next point, Zverev received a warning for exhibiting excessive frustration.
After the feather incident, Zverev took a brief moment to compose himself by holding onto the net before returning to the game.
“Maybe the umpire made the right call; maybe not, I have no idea,” he reflected. “It was just a bit frustrating because Tommy had the advantage of a first serve, and he won the point with that as well. There was a lot happening at that stage.”
Despite the distractions, Zverev managed to maintain his composure, saving a set point, recovering a service break, and dominating the tiebreaker, mirroring his performance in the first set.
“I feel like I stole both those sets in some sense because he was playing better than me and was serving for both,” Zverev added. “I played quite well in the tiebreak, and he missed a few shots he probably shouldn’t have. I’m pleased to have won in four sets, as this was a challenging match.”
Meanwhile, No. 12-seeded Paul struggled during the initial tiebreaker, looking particularly frustrated when one of his serves seemed to touch the net but was not called as a let by the umpire, as there are no automatic let systems at the Australian Open.
Although Paul lost that point and voiced his concerns to the chair umpire, he later remarked, “That didn’t lose me the match.”
“I was already down about 4-1 in the breaker. I hit a serve that should have been a let, but the chair didn’t catch it. I didn’t realize there was no automatic … let machine here,” he said.
Zverev labeled the absence of automatic let detection technology at Grand Slam events as “quite ridiculous.”
“Every nook and cranny has a camera, we have video reviews and other advanced tech, yet a simple let machine, which we’ve used for over 25 years, isn’t available at a Grand Slam?” he questioned.
“I must say, the point that Paul complained about was an incredibly obvious let,” Zverev stated. “I was unsure how to proceed in that moment. I had to keep playing because without a call, stopping would mean a loss of point for me.”
