Federer fumes in defeat by Zverev as Djokovic also falls
On a dramatic day of tennis in Shanghai, Roger Federer received a rare point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct as he went down to a three-set defeat at the hands of Germany’s Alexander Zverev.
The first sign of trouble came when Federer was broken early in the decider and whacked a ball high into the stands in frustration. Umpire Nacho Forcadell gave him a warning for ball abuse. Then, when Federer flipped a second ball out of court in his next service game, Forcadell had a choice to make. He opted to apply the letter of the law.
Federer had already been tetchy with Forcadell before the penalty was applied, complaining that he had not been informed about a change of balls. Then, when the point was docked, he argued for the best part of a minute, suggesting that there should have been more communication beforehand.
The row continued at the next changeover. Federer was clearly stung by the decision and played his most aggressive tennis of the set in the immediate aftermath. But Zverev, who recently joined Federer’s management agency Team 8, landed 16 out of 19 first serves in that deciding set, at about 135mph apiece. He held his nerve to clinch a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory on his sixth match point.
After the match, Federer said that he had received a point penalty before, but added that it happened “a long time ago”. He was prickly when a reporter asked what his reasons for objecting to Forcadell’s decisions had been, replying: “So you can write on Twitter, you mean? It would be nice if you would write something nice once also about the game. Next question.”
This was a significant moment for Zverev, who had not beaten a top-10 player all season. He will now face Matteo Berrettini of Italy in today’s semi-final.
The other last-four match brings together two players who have a frosty personal relationship, in Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
Yesterday, Tsitsipas scored a superb 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over top seed Novak Djokovic. One of the side-effects was to ensure that Djokovic will lose the world No 1 ranking at the start of November, while Rafael Nadal – who is absent from Shanghai because of injury – will climb back to the top of the table for the eighth time.
At the Tianjin Open, Heather Watson continued her excellent week by saving four match points and closing out a 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 victory over world No 42 Magda Linette. She will return to the world’s top 100 next week.
In Linz, 15-year-old Coco Gauff beat Kiki Bertens to claim the first top-10 scalp of her embryonic career and reach the semi-finals.