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A fan was ejected from a US Open tennis match early on Tuesday morning after German player Alexander Zverev complained the man used language from Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.
Zverev, the number 12 seed, was at 2-2 in the fourth set of his match against number six seed, Italy's Jannik Sinner, when he suddenly went to chair umpire James Keothavong and pointed toward the fan, who was sitting in a section behind the umpire.
Zverev walked and said: "He [the fan] just said the most famous Hitler phrase there is..."
"It's unacceptable, this is unbelievable."
Keothavong looked into the crowd and pointed, asking repeatedly "Who said that? Who said that?" as the crowd booed.
"We're going to get him out," the umpire then told those watching on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Keothavong asked fans to be respectful to both players. However, during a changeover shortly after, the fan was identified by spectators seated near him, and he was removed by security.
The crowd cheered as he was escorted up the stairs in the stand.
“A disparaging remark was directed toward Alexander Zverev,” US Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier said.
“The fan was identified and escorted from the stadium.”
Zverev went on to beat Sinner in five sets and will play defending US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.
The match, won by Zverev 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, took four hours 41 minutes and was the longest match of the tournament so far.
The match wrapped up at 1:40am New York time.
Zverev said after the match that he has had fans make derogatory comments before, but not involving Hitler.
“He started singing the anthem of Hitler that was back in the day. It was ‘Deutschland über alles’ and it was a bit too much,” Zverev said.
“I think he was getting involved in the match for a long time, though. I don’t mind it, I love when fans are loud, I love when fans are emotional.
"But I think me being German and not really proud of that history, it’s not really a great thing to do and I think him sitting in one of the front rows, I think a lot of people heard it. So if I just don’t react, I think it’s bad from my side.”
Zverev said it wasn't hard to move past the fan's remark.
“It’s his loss, to be honest, to not witness the final two sets of that match,” Zverev said.
The opening lines of the German national anthem including the words "Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles, über alles in der Welt", which translates as "Germany, Germany above all, above all in the world," became associated with the Nazi regime and has not been used officially for many decades.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) apologised to the German tennis team in 2017, when the outdated version of the anthem was played by mistake before a Fed Cup match against the United States in Hawaii.
LoadingAP/ABC