Weird stuff in Madrid where Alexander Zverev received a ridiculous time violation when playing against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
What happened
The German and the Greek were locked on a 1-1 40-40 scoreline during their match in the quarters while Tsitsipas “went for a towel” before Sascha’s serve. The German waiting for the Greek to be in the position to receive a horrible time violation from the umpire that evidently didn’t see that Stefanos was out of position for most of the time.
Sascha was completely upset to say to the umpire: “I was standing there. I was waiting for him. Honest!”
The umpire replied: “I looked at him and he was ready. You still had 10 seconds.”
Sascha asked Tsitsipas for a confirmation, but apparently the Greeks ignored him.
Zverev getting the time violation that got him so fired up. (TSN) pic.twitter.com/LrLOX2cKtN
— Michael Gallo (@Galloots) May 10, 2019
and Nadal?
The irony is that in the same event home favorite Nadal is allowed to average around 30 seconds in between points. That means that on average he breaks the rule (25 seconds) every single point and he rarely receives a time violation. During his first match in Madrid against Felix Auger-Aliassime at a certain point, it took 56 seconds for Nadal to serve without being disturbed by external factors.
Is this fair?
Sorry but this time violation is totally stupid. And it is not very sportmanslike from Stefanos. Zverev was ready and Stefanos not. Then Zverev walks a few steps back.
— Anna-Maria (@Icicestanna1) May 10, 2019
Zverev didnt deserve that time violation warning at all 😩😩
— 👑 (@HailDemigoddess) May 10, 2019
It’s already building up to a bit of spicy matchup. Zverev is ready to serve, moves back because Tsitsi isn’t ready to return then Zverev gets given a time violation warning. Supervisor brought onto court as well.
— Jake Davies (@jakedavi5) May 10, 2019
Zverev was totally right there. Was ready to serve and Tsitsipas was still getting his towel, turned around and waited for him to be ready, then got called a time violation…
— aidan (@ajdeaidan) May 10, 2019
Time violation pour Zverev qui s’embrouille avec l’arbitre… Pour être franc, Stef a pris un peu de temps pour se mettre en position de retour. #MMOPEN #HomeOfTennis pic.twitter.com/vBO4JBlzgN
— TsitsipasFR (@TsitsipasFR) May 10, 2019
Zverev got a time violation, says he was waiting for Stefanos. Asks for Stefanos to confirm his version. Stefanos ignores him.
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) May 10, 2019