When you’re an international tennis star cooling their heels on a long injury lay-off, the mind turns to the big things in life and for 12th seed Alexander Zverev, who spent five months on the sidelines with an ankle problem, what could be bigger than saving the planet?
The German ordered an audit of the carbon emissions of he and his support team, who he reckons cover up to 500,000 kilometres a year, burning about 250 tonnes of planet-cooking carbon, and Alexander wants to tread more lightly on the Earth, understandable for a man with a dodgy ankle.
Alexander Zverev of Germany in action.Credit:AP
The player has bought a bunch of carbon offsets to make up for the environmental damage done by his globetrotting entourage and hired environment consultancy Carbon Clarity to make team Zverev even greener.
The bloke reckons all this is going to put him into exalted company.
“We have also seen significant progress with the efforts of Ash Barty in raising awareness and action on vital social responsibility issues and what [Manchester United’s] Marcus Rashford has achieved in areas such as race and poverty is amazing,” Zverev said in a statement.
BREAK POINT
Maria Sakkari went off on a right one during her win over German Diana Shnaider on Margaret Court Arena.
The world No.6 was getting visibly more irritated by the in-your-face celebrations of her teenage opponent, perhaps expecting more respect from a mere qualifier towards a top-10 opponent, before Sakkari finally cracked it late in the second.
“One more time, in my face,” she told the umpire, raising a finger for effect.
“I don’t think it’s against you, Maria,” umpire Christian Rask reasoned. But Sakkari was having none it.
“It’s coming towards me,” she told the clearly unimpressed Dane in the big chair. “One more time and I’m going to speak to the referee.”
Sakkari told Open Season later that Shnaider had toned things down after the Greek’s exchange with the chair.
“That was nice of her,” Sakkari said.
The sixth seed also had to set straight an American journalist who thought he had heard the player threatening to break her coach’s neck during the game. Turns out it was only Sakkari’s racquet in mortal danger.
“Do you think I’m that violent, that I would break my coach’s neck?” she asked.
“I’m a nice person.”
NOT SHOTS
We brought word on Wednesday that the decades old partnership between casino giant Crown and sport talent agency IMG to host the showpiece Crown IMG Tennis Party each year at the Open had ended.
Punters lobbing up to Melbourne Park on Thursday might notice another long-running partnership is also no more. Tennis Hot Shots Day – when coaches and players in the juniors program are invited to the Open – will go ahead without long-time sponsor ANZ bank, which supported the event for 14 years before declining to include Hot Shots in a new sponsorship deal it signed last year with Tennis Australia.
Neither party would tell us why the pin was pulled on the arrangement, but if anyone’s interested, the tournament organisers tell us they’ve yet to find a new funding partner.
RAINING CHAMP
Melbourne’s outburst of wild weather was causing problems even before Wednesday’s tournament washout.
Poland’s No.1 seed Iga Swiatek was trying to take her mind off things on Tuesday night, before her second round clash with Camila Osorio, with a quiet walk through the city when the damaging storm struck.
“In Melbourne [it’s] usually sunny, except today and yesterday,” Swiatek said after her straight sets win over the Colombian.
“So I need to change my plans. Yesterday I actually went for a walk at 7 o’clock and then it started raining and I was just hiding under the tree, waiting for like 30 minutes. So if there’s anybody who’s going to see me tonight walking in the rain, please save me, give me umbrella or something.”
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