Alexander Zverev was recently called out for his poor on-court behaviour by Wu Yibing. After the duo’s encounter at the Shanghai Masters, the home player criticised the German for ‘falling down, complaining about the lights and messing with the net tape’.

Zverev and Yibing faced off against each other for their round of 64 encounter at the Shanghai Masters. The German arrived at the battle having received a bye for his opening round match, while Yibing defeated American Michael Zheng in straight sets to move forward. Zverev and Yibing’s clash got off to a promising start for the top seed as he clinched the first set 6-4, and despite a gutsy fight from the home star, the two-time Grand Slam champion eventually clinched a 7-6(4) win in the second set.

After the match, Wu Yibing criticised Alexander Zverev for his behaviour on court, telling media,

“I definitely enjoyed the match with Alcaraz more because it was a bigger challenge. Today, the main challenge was just dealing with his serve – he has such a strong serve and great first-strike ability. But there were some little incidents during the match… falling down, complaining about the lights, messing with the net tape. I feel like some of that really wasn’t necessary. Relatively speaking, it wasn’t such a ‘pure’ competition.”

“Of course, he only did those things to break the rhythm and adjust his mood because I was putting pressure on him. Even though I didn’t get distracted, personally, I just don’t appreciate that kind of behavior,” he went on to add.

Yibing had battled Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open in September. The duo had faced off against each other in the third round, with the Spaniard claiming a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 win.

Alexander Zverev scheduled to take on Quentin Halys at the Shanghai Masters

Zverev at the Rolex Shanghai Masters (Image Source: Getty)

Up next at the Shanghai Masters, Alexander Zverev will run into Quentin Halys for his third round encounter. Halys kicked off his time in China with a straight sets win over Coleman Wong. The Frenchman then went on to face Alexander Blockx, upsetting the 27th seed 4-6, 7-6(9), 6-4.

Alexander Zverev and Quentin Halys have competed against each other three times, with all of their encounters taking place in the 2026 season. While Halys has often put up a fight, Zverev has clinched a win on each of these three occasions, with the duo’s most recent encounter having taken place at the 2026 US Open.