Alexander Zverev has been thrown out following the striking of the umpire’s chair several times with his racket following an argument with the umpire regarding the decisive tie-break as he lost 6-2 4-6 10-6 to Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.
The german hit the umpire’s chair three times with his racquet and almost struck the umpire’s foot under the rage. Furthermore, he continued yelling at the umpire and also took another swing at him aggressively when the umpire moved to climb down from his chair. The split happened when Zverev along with his partner Marcelo Melo believed a ball was incorrectly called while the point being played was at 8-6, during a ten-point match tie-break.
According to the ATP statement, Alexander Zverev has been withdrawn from the tournament in Acapulco due to unsportsmanlike conduct after the conclusion of his doubles match on Tuesday night.
The ATP defines unsportsmanlike conduct as, “any misconduct by a player that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the success of a tournament, ATP and/or the sport,” which the German clearly broke when facing Britain’s Glasspool and Finland’s Heliovaara who then wrapped the match up with an ace on the next point.
The Tokyo Olympic gold medalist has been accused of domestic abuse against former girlfriend Olga Sharapova which the ATP is set to investigate. Commentators and journalists called out the German on his appealing behaviour which was accountable for serious repercussions from the ATP according to whose rule book, for major offences include fines up to $25,000 or the prize money won at the tournament, and/or suspensions from ATP events for a maximum of one year.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
Something should be done here…#TenisNaSportTV https://t.co/WxvJUopKiA
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) February 23, 2022
The 24-year-old was the defending singles champion of the ATP 500-level event and he was confirmed to be playing his second-round singles match in the coming days.