Alexander Zverev aims maiden Grand Slam following Novak Djokovic default

World No. 7 Alexander Zverev didn't think Serbian tennis superstar intended to hit the lines women with the ball but that happened and it resulted in an unfortunate ending.

Djokovic, seeded at No. 1 in the US Open main draw, hit the ball after dropping his serve in the 11th game of the first set of his round-of-16 match against Pablo Carreno Busta.

The ball hit the lines women, and after 10 minutes of deliberating, the 17-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic was disqualified. 

Djokovic tried to explain he didn't have a malicious intent and he didn't want to hit the lines women but the rules were clear and the chair umpire had no other choice but to disqualify the Serb. 

"I was 100% sure that I was not going to get asked this question," Zverev said.

"I mean, look, it's unfortunate. He hit a ball, he hit a tennis ball. It's very unfortunate that, you know, he hit the line judge, and especially where it hit her.

"Yeah, there is a rule in place for it. I think the supervisors and all of them are just doing their job. But, yeah, very unlucky for Novak.

"I think he's going to be a little bit upset about it, but, yeah. He could have -- if he would have hit it anywhere else, if it would have landed anywhere else, we are talking about a few inches, he would have been fine.

"So, yeah, very unlucky."

Zverev aiming a maiden Grand Slam following the Djokovic default 

No. 5 seed Zverev saw off rising Spanish star Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2 6-2 6-1 to reach his first US Open quarterfinal.

The game is set to get a new Grand Slam winner as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka opted against playing, and Djokovic is now also out of the tournament. 

"There's going to be a new Grand Slam champion. That's all I know right now. There's no past Grand Slam champions left in the draw. It's going to be one of the young guys, I think, if you count Dominic Thiem as a young guy, as well. He obviously has a chance to win, as well," Zverev said.

"Now it gets interesting. Now I think is the time where it gets really interesting. Yeah. I know who is where in the draw. I know who I can play. I know who the rest of the guys can play. Yeah. We'll see where we go from here."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/334RshP