Alexander Zverev takes action as Cameron Norrie match stopped | Tennis | Sport
In three separate ocassions in the third set, the ball boys were called to clean up muck from the local birds hovering overhead. On the third time, Zverev took matters into his own hands by grabbing a towel and wiping his side of the court himself.
On the second delay, Zverev spoke to the ball boy and can be heard saying: “If you want me to do it, I can do it.” The ball boy continued and cleaned up.
However, after just one more point, while the ball boy cleans up Norrie’s side of the court, Zverev grabs a towel himself to clean up his side. TNT Sport commentator Jodie Burridge said: “I’m not sure what they can do.”
Fellow commenatator, Mikey Perera then added: “I mean this is the natural world. Zverev is going to take things into his own hands here.”
When Zverev was finished, Perera added: “Well done,” with sections of the crowd cheering and clapping.
The third stoppage was at 5-3 to Zverev and with the German 15-0 up on Norrie’s serve. As the British player went to continue playing, Burridge added: “It is quite distracting for Norrie, with this scoreline.”
Zverev went onto break serve and therfore claim the third set. That put the third seed two sets to one up in the match.
The German took that moumentum into the fourth set, quickly taking a 5-0 lead to put Norrie on the edge of elimination. The number 26 seed is the final British player remaining in the Grand Slam.
With just two points needed to take the match, Zverev again grabbed a towel to clean up his side of the court. The birds could be heard making noise as players prepared to serve.
Zverev went onto win the match 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and end British hopes at Melbourne Park.
Norrie was looking to break a record of six losses in a row against his opponent, but will now likely have to wait until the next meeting with the record extended to seven.
The meeting was the second year in a row that Norrie has come up against Zverev in the Australian Open. Last year, the Brit pushed the German to five sets, with a tie-breaker in the fifth needed to separate the two at the last 16 stage.
