February 23, (THEWILL) – After losing a doubles match, Alexander Zverev attacked the umpire’s chair with his tennis racquet, prompting the ATP to pull him from the Mexican Open.
In the round of 16 matchup, Zverev and Marcelo Melo were defeated by Heliovaara and Glasspool 2-6 6-4 10-6. The Olympic winner then approached the umpire’s chair and began hitting it with his racket before returning to his seat after shaking hands with his opponents.
Inexcusably, he returned to the umpire’s chair, yelling expletives and smashing it with his racquet. As the 24-year-old approached the chair for the second time, the crowd gasped as he could be heard screaming that the umpire had ruined the entire match before striking at the seat again.
His tirade which contained swear words could be heard over the crowd as the shouted: “You f****** destroyed the whole f****** match. The whole f****** match.”
He also narrowly missed the umpire’s feet as he angrily swung his racquet at the seat.
It all began after a disputed call in the match tiebreaker, that caused Zverev to erupt in rage: “Look where the ball bounced,” Zverev raged at the umpire.
“It’s 8-6 in the tiebreak, look where the ball bounced. For f*** sake, it’s your line. IT’S F****** YOUR LINE. YOU F****** IDIOT.”
The ATP were left with little choice but to dropped the Olympic champion from the tournament for unsportsmanlike behaviour. On Thursday, Zverev was scheduled to play Peter Gojowczyk in the round of 16 on the singles side of the draw but that will no longer be the case.
The event occurred just one day after Zverev played in the latest ever finish to a tennis match in tennis history, when he defeated Jenson Brooksby at 4.55 am for a match that began at 1:30 am in Mexico.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
