Alexander Zverev fumes at Australian Open umpire after feather halts match

Alexander Zverev let rip at the umpire after a point in his Australian Open last eight clash was stopped and replayed due to a feather making its way onto the court

Alexander Zverev launched a furious rant during his Australian Open clash with Tommy Paul - after the umpire halted a point due to a feather.

The German No 2 seed was a break down in the second set and was looking to restore parity with the score at 4-2 (40-40). He and Paul were well into the rally when the umpire decided to call time on the point and asked for it to be replayed after a feather was thrown on court.

The umpire felt that Zverev's backhand flew close to the feather, which would have been distracting for Paul. The crowd booed the call before the German made his frustrations clear as he pointed out that a number of feathers were already on the court.

He was heard saying: "This is unbelievable. It's a feather, there's millions of them on the court."

Two points later and Paul held his serve to make it 5-2 in the second set after Zverev had claimed the opening set. The German responded impressively to the setback and won four of the next five games to take the set to a tiebreak, which he won without losing a point.

Paul commandingly won the third set 6-2 to put the pressure back on the German, who is still looking to win his first Grand Slam, but he made light work of the fourth set, winning it 6-1 to put himself into the semi-finals - where he will face either Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz.

The victory was 27-year-old Zverev's seventh in a row and means he continues his unbeaten start to his season. "I should have been down two sets, he played better than me and I was not playing great and I thought he was," Zverev admitted. "The fourth set was definitely the best I played and I'm extremely happy to be back in the semi-finals."

Zverev also admitted he struggled to play during the day in Australia and preferred night matches, but joked that his request was denied due to the blockbuster clash featuring Djokovic and Alcaraz that got the nod instead.

He said: "I absolutely love playing night matchers here, I really do, I just feel the ball so well on my racket but during the day I struggle a bit more. I'm in the semi-finals somehow. I totally understand that Carlos vs Novak is the highlight match of the tournament, so I tried to request a night match but it was denied very quickly!"

Zverev previously reached the semi-finals in Melbourne in 2020 and 2024. Across the course of his career it is the eighth time in his career that he's at least reached the last four of the tournament. This time last year his hopes were ended in the last four by Daniil Medvedev, who recovered from two sets down to beat the German.