Alexander Zverev smashed his racket into the court eight times in frustration after he went 4-1 down in the second set against Milos Raonic.
By that time it was all but over as the big-serving Canadian rolled to a 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory on Monday to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the fourth time.
Raonic dropped the opening game but then rebounded by winning the next eight.
Zverev held serve to end that streak, but was broken again two games later and that tipped him over.
The 21-year-old German flopped into his courtside chair and destroyed his racket in eight angry swings. Then he tossed it.
Zverev got the inevitable warning for racket abuse, took a break at the end of the second set and returned from the locker room a much calmer, more composed player.
It was too late as Zverev extended an unwanted streak of never beating a top 20 player at a Grand Slam tournament.
“I played incredible today,” said Raonic, the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2016. “I did a lot of things very well. Proud of that.”
Zverev only dropped one point on his serve in his first few games until Raonic stepped up the pressure again.
Zverev composed himself to save those two – one with a short slice backhand that Roanic ran for but couldn’t retrieve to end a 29-shot rally and another that clipped the baseline.
But Raonic rallied from 3-1 down in the tiebreaker and finally converted on his fourth match point. He’ll next play either No. 11 Borna Coric or No. 28 Lucas Pouille in the quarterfinals.
