From day to day, he is an outlaw from the hero. While on Tuesday the whole world talked about his record match, which he won before five o’clock in the morning, on Wednesday German tennis player Alexander Zverev outraged the tennis public by attacking the referee after the doubles match. He is now the target of sharp criticism.
When he spent more than three hours on the court in the first round of the Mexican tournament against American Jenson Brooksby, he turned away two matchwords and won the match at 4:55 in the morning, the media celebrated him as a steadfast fighter. He set a new circuit record, no match has ever ended so late.
The next day everything is different. His nerves broke in doubles when he complained about a controversial ball in the supertiebreak at 6: 8 alongside Marcel Mel. The main judge saw the opponents’ blow as good, while Zverev was convinced of the car.
“It’s 8: 6 in the tiebreak, look, where the hell the ball landed. Look where it landed, it’s your line. Is that your experienced line? You’re an experienced idiot,” the German tennis player began.
It was of little value to him, in the end they didn’t even play the ball with their partner and they lost to the British-Finnish duo Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliövaar. After shaking hands at the net, Zverev started at the referee and swung his racket several times into the umpire until its frame shattered.
“This is absolutely appalling from Zverev,” said BBC tennis commentator David Law, the world’s third player.
Zverev was then expelled from the tournament for unsportsmanlike conduct, and will probably receive a fine. That’s up to the ATP disciplinary board.
“Some tennis players don’t realize their privileges. If employees behaved like some tennis players at work, they would fly immediately. I’m not enough to stare,” wrote Twitter-based tennis reporter Chris Goldsmith.
Moreover, the incident will not be the only investigation against Zverev. The ATP is still investigating the case of his alleged domestic violence against his girlfriend Olga Sharypova.
“I was standing in the hallway and suddenly it hit me on the wall when I ended up on the ground, he was still yelling at me about what I was doing,” she told racquetmag.com.
The ATP has been investigating the allegations since October, but has not yet issued an opinion. If Zvereva is not affected by any ban, he should appear again in the first half of March at the Indian Wells tournament.
