Alexander Zverev had quite the showdown with a rowdy fan during his quarter-final win at the 2025 Canadian Open – and his celebration afterward was pretty amazing.
The German player took the scenic route to reach the semi-finals at this ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto. He was up against Alexei Popyrin, who’s the defending champion after winning in Montreal last year.
The Australian came out swinging this time too, taking the first-set tiebreak against the top seed.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Zverev | 28 | 6,885 | 34 - 10 |
But Zverev wasn’t having it. He completely took over the next two sets, winning 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-3.
When fans get too involved
It was a really tough match, but things got interesting when Zverev was serving for the win. One fan – let’s call them a heckler – clearly didn’t want the match to end.
Maybe they were rooting for Popyrin. Or maybe they had some money riding on it.
When Zverev served for the match at 5-3, this person just wouldn’t stop yelling at him. You could tell the German was getting pretty annoyed.
Security eventually stepped in and removed the troublemaker.
A couple of points later, Zverev converted his first match point. And here’s where it gets good – he chose a celebration that was all for that heckler.
Even though the person was already gone, Zverev waved at their empty seat, basically saying goodbye.
Perfect timing for a title run
Without Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and Novak Djokovic in the draw, Zverev’s got to be feeling pretty confident about his chances in Toronto.
He’s just secured a semi-final meeting with Karen Khachanov. That means he’s only two wins away from the title.
During his post-match press conference, Zverev admitted he’s starting to feel much better on court lately.
"I’m actually quite satisfied with the level today. I thought it was a high-level match. Alexei plays the best tennis of his life in Canada, obviously, every year. So, yeah, all-in-all, I think it was a good performance."
The conditions in Toronto seem to be clicking for him too.
"Today was definitely the first time I actually felt the ball well on the racket. I know that the conditions can fit me very well. I know that. It’s a fast court, the balls are fast. But I need to get used to it. I need to get the rhythm with these balls."
That’s huge for any tennis player – when you start feeling the ball properly, everything else falls into place.
"So, I’m happy that I’m slowly starting to do that, hopefully. Yeah, if I continue doing that, in the semifinals maybe even play a bit better, I have confidence in what’s going to happen this week."
Why Zverev showed up when others didn’t
With all the big names skipping Toronto, people wanted to know why Zverev made the trip to Canada.
His situation’s actually pretty different from the other top players.
He lost early at Wimbledon, which gave him some much-needed time off. So while Sinner, Djokovic, and Alcaraz were probably exhausted, Zverev was rested and ready.
"Well, I lost first round Wimbledon, so I had a month off. That’s probably the number one reason. At the end of the day, it’s still a Masters 1000, and I think these are the biggest tournaments that we have on the ATP Tour. We’re fighting for big things here."
It’s interesting how sometimes early losses can work in your favor.
"It’s a privilege to play in these kind of events. Yeah, I think it’s not beneficial for top players that it’s a two-week event now. But all-in-all, I had quite a lot of time off. I could rest for a week completely without doing anything, and then I had a lot of time to train. So it was, yeah, it was a good thing for me to play here."
With the semifinal against Khachanov coming up, Zverev’s perfectly positioned to capitalize on this depleted draw. And if that heckler’s watching from home, they’re probably regretting opening their mouth.
