Federer’s sportsmanship during loss to Zverev should be a lesson to Serena Williams and Fernando Verdasco

For the second time this year, a young player felt compelled to apologize to the booing crowd on a tennis court, after defeating a fan favourite and legend of the game.

When Alexander Zverev was interviewed after one of the most important wins of his young career to secure a place in his first ATP World Tour final, he apologized profusely for an incident during the match where his conduct was completely in accordance with the rules.

After winning a tight set, Zverev was down 3-4 in the second set tie-break and was slightly on the back foot in a rally when a ball boy behind Federer dropped the ball. Zverev stopped playing immediately. It left both the chair umpire and Federer confused, as neither of them had noticed this incident.

Both Federer and Zverev came over to the net. Zverev explained the incident to the chair umpire and Federer. As per rules, the point was replayed. Zverev quickly won it, and went on to win the match.

On the face of it, this seems like a routine event. Everybody behaved exactly the way they were supposed to. But some unfortunate events on tennis courts this year have shown us that this sort of normal and decent behaviour is not exactly that normal on the court – both on ATP and WTA circuits.

We all saw the angry reactions and un-sportsmanship behaviour of Serena Williams during the US Open final when she verbally abused the chair umpire when he had actually acted very much in accordance to the rules of the game.

Here too, when the umpire asked the point to be relayed, considering the advantageous position the Federer was in that particular rally, and also keeping in mind, the match situation, Federer had every reason to be frustrated.

And he surely must have felt the frustration. But there was no visible demonstration of that frustration. The moment the chair umpire asked the point to be replayed, he went back to his position and was ready to play.

After he lost the match, he congratulated Zverev and when the youngster offered his apology for the incident, he told him that there was absolutely no need to apologise and wished him luck for the final. He was absolutely fine with the chair umpire’s decision too.

The ball boy’s error, albeit an unintentional one, may have played a part in his loss. But he did not take it out on the kid, unlike players like Fernando Verdasco who had almost brought a poor ball kid to tears when he was not handed his towel as fast as he was expecting in Shenzhen.

Let’s hope Federer’s sportsmanship and fair play rub off on other tennis players – both on ATP and WTA circuits.