Novak Djokovic 'feels bad' for Alexander Zverev ahead of ATP Finals final
NOVAK DJOKOVIC says he feels bad for Alexander Zverev because the youngster was booed after his ATP Finals semi-final victory over Roger Federer.
Zverev knocked out the fan favourite yesterday with a shock 7-5, 7-6(5) victory to set up a showdown with Djokovic, but the result was met with intense boos from the watching brief.
The supporters were frustrated with a point Zverev won during a tense second-set tiebreak.
With the tiebreak score at 4-3 to Federer, a ball boy dropped a ball on the court and ran forwards to retrieve it.
The incident was directly in the eye line of Zverev and he stopped the rally - which Federer was dominating - so the point could be replayed.
World No 5 Zverev then aced the restart and went on to book his place in the final.
However, many inside the O2 Arena felt Zverev had cheated his way to victory, despite being entirely in the right.
And Djokovic was not happy with the way the 21-year-old was treated.
"I saw that," Djokovic said.
"Look, I felt bad for Sascha in a way because in the end you could see that he didn't deserve to be booed.
"I don't see what he did wrong. Things happen. It was obviously a really important point, an important moment, and Roger was in the point.
"I think he was putting Sascha on the back foot. You could see on the replay it actually happened. It disturbed him.
"I didn't check the rule exactly, whether I think the chair umpire is the only one that can actually stop the play if he sees it.
"I'm not sure. Maybe somebody can tell me whether the player is able to do that.
"I think on the moral side, you can't really say anything negative about that move from Sascha because it did really happen.
"He's not someone that cheats or something like that. He's quite an honest guy, has a really good relationship with all the players and Roger, respectful.
"He didn't deserve to get booed. But I also understand from a crowd's perspective that it all looked quite odd to happen at that point."