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Grand slam under-achiever Alexander Zverev says tennis's brash young brigade need to learn a thing or two from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal about behaviour.
Alexander Zverev is urging tennis's next-gen pretenders to ditch the theatrics and gamesmanship and let their racquets do the talking - a la Roger and Rafa - following his latest grand slam flop.
Zverev, the under-achieving world No.6, turned the blowtorch on his misbehaving young peers after failing to reach the quarter-finals for the 18th time in 20 career majors.
The 22-year-old German committed tennis suicide with 17 double-faults in a 3-6 6-2 6-4 6-3 fourth-round US Open loss to Diego Schwartzman on Monday, before diverting attention to others in the pack chasing veteran grand slam giants Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Zverev was particularly critical of 23-year-old world No.5 Daniil Medevev, who has enraged fans with his antics in New York - including giving spectators the bird during his run to the quarter-finals - and 21-year-old world No.8 Stefanos Tsitsipas for his serial go-slow tactics.
Zverev was also bewildered when Frances Tiafoe, 21, took a bathroom break that lasted more than 10 minutes during his second-round match, while Nick Kyrgios, 24, is under ATP investigation for two "major offences" in the past month.
"There's a lot of young guys that do things on the tennis court that maybe is not the best thing to do. I don't want the next generation to be known for that," Zverev said.
"I think a lot of the times Tsitsipas gets over the line with changing his shoes 15 times in a tournament, going to the bathroom in the middle of a set. Stuff like that.
"Let your tennis racquet talk for you kind of. You don't need to do things to distract the opponent, try to win that way."
But the German himself has not always been on his best behaviour and was docked a point against Schwartzman for a verbal obscenity.
He contested the call, saying he never heard his warning earlier in the match, in which he was supported by Schwartzman.
"Code violation is fine. I didn't even argue that. But neither of us heard me getting a warning in the first place," he said. "I didn't hear it. Diego didn't hear it. Most of the crowd didn't hear it. I think the umpires next time should let me know about it.
"But, yeah, I hope some of the NextGen or the young guys will kind of learn from the older guys like Roger and Rafa, who have been unbelievable over their career, (who) really let their racquet talk for them, not try to distract opponents, something like that.
"They're winning right now. I hope that kind of changes in the NextGen, as well."
But with 38-year-old Federer this week revealing plans to possibly play into his 40s and continuing to hold down a top-three spot with Nadal and Djokovic, it's unlikely Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipis and the like will receive any let-up any time soon.
Medvedev is the only remaining member of the young brigade in contention to snap the streak of 11 straight grand slams won by either of the sport's big three.
But in Wawrinka, the Russian faces a three-time major champion and one of only three other players, along with Andy Murray and Marin Cilic, to have won a slam in the past decade.
