Rennae Stubbs' awful revelation after US Open rocked by disturbing fan incident

Former tennis star and respected commentator Rennae Stubbs has hit out at fans in New York after a number of ugly crowd controversies at this year's US Open. The Australian revealed she was also caught up in some unsavoury drama at Flushing Meadows in the wake of a shocking incident involving Alexander Zverev on Tuesday (AEST).

The German confronted a spectator after alleging an 'unacceptable' Hitler phrase was used during his round of 16 victory against Jannik Sinner. "He just said the most famous Hitler phrase there is in this world. That is unacceptable," Zverev said to the chair umpire, while pointing to a section of the crowd.

'RIDICULOUS': Djokovic and Gauff caught in furore as US Open move blasted

'NOT ABOUT TENNIS': Alex de Minaur's shock confession after loss

Security eventually identified the male culprit and promptly ejected him from the stadium, with the shocking scenes sparking backlash around the world. Zverev revealed after the match that he has been subjected to plenty of sledging from fans before, but nothing that has ever made reference to 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.”

The US Open crowds have frequently drawn the ire of the rest of the tennis world and a number of incidents at this year's grand slam have overshadowed the drama on court. The night sessions in New York have tended to be the worst times for fan antics, with alcohol invariably involved. Hitting out after the Zverev crowd drama, Stubbs took aim at fans after revealing she'd been caught up in an awful alcohol-fuelled incident with spectators.

“I love the fans but at this point there are some bad characters,” Stubbs wrote on social media. “I had a drink thrown on me last night by a drunk fan who was fighting with her boyfriend. Now we got someone yelling Hitler slurs! Wtf? Come on peeps.”

Crowd drama continues to overshadow US Open

A number of players have increasingly called out fans during this year's US Open with Daniil Medvedev among those to slam spectators for shouting out during points. Petra Kvitova was also caught up in ugly crowd drama during her second round defeat to Caroline Wozniacki.

The Danish comeback queen was clearly the fans' favourite but the fact Kvitova's mistakes were cheered by spectators left a bad taste in the mouths of viewers. Channel 9 commentator Brenton Speed was highly critical of the crowd display, saying: "We don't need that sort of thing, surely."

The US Open crowd has never been known for their class and sportsmanship and also came under fire earlier in the tournament after booing Laura Siegemund during her first-round loss to home hope Coco Gauff. Fans and Gauff both grew tired of some stalling tactics from Siegemund and made their feelings known.

Sigemund was later reduced to tears in her press conference, saying fans "treated her like a cheater". The German added: "At the end of the day I go home and I look at myself and I can say I did a great job, but did I get anything from people for that? I didn't.

"Maybe it's not zero. Maybe it feels like zero right now. But it feels pretty much like a flat zero, even less than zero because they treated me bad. Like they treated me like I was a cheater. Like I was like, trying sneaky ways to win this match or something. They treated me like I was a bad person."

Sign up to our newsletter and score the biggest sport stories of the week.