German tennis star Alexander Zverev was excluded from the singles competitions at the Acapulco Championships in Mexico on Wednesday after a tantrum following his loss in the doubles competitions.
Zverev, the gold medalist in the Tokyo Olympics, hit the referee's bench with his racket several times, while the referee was sitting on the bench, after losing with his Brazilian partner Marcelo Melo to Britain's Lloyd Glaspool and Finland's Harry Heliovara.
Earlier in the match, Zverev expressed his anger over the decision by the referee.
The WTA dealt immediately with Zverev's behavior, and decided to expel the 24-year-old world number three from the tournament for "unsportsmanlike behaviour".
Due to unsportsmanlike conduct at the conclusion of his doubles match on Tuesday night, Alexander Zverev has been withdrawn from the tournament in Acapulco.
The updated Draw can be viewed here: https://t.co/Hqdsgiplgm
— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) February 23, 2022
Zverev won the title of the last edition of the Mexican championship, and defeated American Jensen Brosby in the first round of the current edition, and was preparing to meet his compatriot Peter Goyovitsk in the second round, but the latter qualified for the quarter-finals immediately after Zverev was excluded.
Classy as always.. #zverev #Acapulco pic.twitter.com/ymJF4J3Zcd
— Open Your Eyes (@diputseruoy) February 23, 2022
The communication platforms witnessed sharp criticism of the third-ranked in the world, and demanded that he be punished and suspended for a long time because of the behavior that they considered unsportsmanlike.
Part 2: Glasspool/Heliovaara scored an ace and won the match and the video shared in this thread happened.
That's the chronology from what I could understand started near the end of the super tie-break.
pic.twitter.com/JRaVPWYWZz
— stateofsport21 (@stateofsport211) February 23, 2022
Journalist Siobhan Kina commented - in a tweet on her Twitter - "I've never seen anything like Zverev's behavior in the Mexican Open. Glad he was excluded from the tournament, and I'm waiting to see if there is any further action from the ATP or the German Federation."
Tennis journalist Mario Rivetti commented - in another tweet - "I do not intend to argue with the new tennis fans, each of them has their own perception of the sport in their experience."
"But Zverev's behavior is ugly and unacceptable. I hope they will make decisions and there will be a punishment... If someone else does it, he will be stopped," he added.
I have quite literally never seen anything like the display from #zverev at the #MexicanOpen.
Glad he's been disqualified from the tournament and waiting to see if there is any further action from the ATP or DTB.
https://t.co/kziAht7jpy
— Siobhan Kenna (@SiobhanKenna) February 23, 2022
No pretendo discutir con aficionados nuevos al tenis, cada quién tiene en su experiencia su percepción del deporte, pero lo de Alexander Zverev es grotesco e inaceptable, espero que tengan huevos y haya sanción.
Si esto lo hace alguien más, lo suspenden.pic.twitter.com/7OkmXUy6wH
— ️𝒊️ (@Riveretti) February 23, 2022
This is awful from Alexander Zverev.
Takes more than one swipe to almost hit the umpire pic.twitter.com/R358EIZ9St
— Nathan Salt (@NathSalt1) February 23, 2022
This is appalling from #Zverev.
Straight red 🔴.
Not acceptable.
https://t.co/VRD0TDn6Gy
— Jaspreet Singh Sahni (@JaspreetSSahni) February 23, 2022
Alexander Zverev rightly removed from Acapulco by the tournament.
Not that it should come as a complete surprise to those following his story, but if some tennis fans are still on the fence about him, his deplorable actions ~in a match~ should say a lot.
https://t.co/xrAOGArkAe
— Zenia D'cunha (@ZENIADCUNHA) February 23, 2022
Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open when he accidentally hit a lines woman.
Curious to know what the ATP will do about this incident where Alexander Zverev deliberately hits the umpire's chair?
#tennis https://t.co/gwcblYuehD
— Angelique Lu (@Angelique_Lu) February 23, 2022