MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥� Alexander Zverev was bothered by an officiating call caused by a bird鈥檚 feather during his at the . Both players found it hard to let go of a previous, more obvious miss.
The second-seeded Zverev was down 4-2 in the second set Tuesday when Paul saved two break points. With the game in the balance, chair umpire Nacho Forcadell called a let and ordered a replay of a point when he saw a white feather drop into Zverev鈥檚 eyeline as the German player was in his backswing.
鈥淲hat? A feather? There鈥檚 millions of them on the court. There's one there. There's one there,鈥� Zverev said as he approached the official while holding up a feather and pointing at some others.
After completing a 7-6 (1), 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-1 victory, Zverev laughed when asked about the feather, saying he'd never heard of it happening before.
鈥淣ot sure it was a hindrance to anybody. It鈥檚 not like a hard object. Like even if the tennis ball hits the feather, it doesn鈥檛 really change anything,鈥� he said.
Zverev was already heated earlier in that game, when a spectator yelled 鈥渙ut鈥� during a point that he lost. Zverev complained about it to Forcadell, who asked the crowd not to shout during points. After losing the following point, Zverev was warned about showing too much frustration.
After the feather episode, Zverev grasped the net to pause for a while before going back to work.
鈥淢aybe the umpire did the right call and maybe not, I have no idea," he said. "But it was a bit frustrating because obviously Tommy then would get a first serve, and he won the point with that serve as well. So it was a bit much happening in that stage.鈥�
Zverev held it together enough to save a set point, recover a service break and dominate the tiebreaker, similar to his winning sequence in the first.
鈥淚 feel like I stole both of those sets in a way, because he was playing better than me and he was serving for both of those sets,鈥� Zverev said. 鈥淚n the tiebreak I played quite well. He maybe missed a little bit more than he should have. Yeah, I鈥檓 happy that I won in four sets because this was a difficult one.鈥�
No. 12-seeded Paul unraveled in the opening tiebreaker, and it didn't help his cause when one of his serves appeared to clip the net but no let was called by the chair umpire. There's no automatic let machines at the Australian Open.
Paul lost the point and questioned the chair umpire, but later said 鈥渢hat didn鈥檛 lose me the match or anything.鈥�
鈥淚 was already down, like, 4-1 in the breaker,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 hit a serve, and it was a let, but the chair didn鈥檛 see it. I just didn鈥檛 know that there was no automatic ... let machine here.鈥�
Zverev said it's 鈥渜uite ridiculous鈥� that there hasn't been an automatic signal for lets at recent Grand Slam events.
鈥淓very single corner of everything has a camera. We have video review and all the high-end technologies that we can possibly have. But a simple let machine that we鈥檝e been using for the past 25 years is not available at a Grand Slam?" he said.
鈥淭o be honest, the point that Tommy Paul complained about, it was an incredibly clear let," Zverev added. "I didn鈥檛 know what to do in that situation. I have to continue playing because if there鈥檚 no call and I stop playing, then it鈥檚 a loss of point for me.鈥�
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