Watch a tennis player's assault on a referee .. "cost him 40 thousand dollars" (video)
The ATP has fined world number three Alexander Zverev $40,000 for unsportsmanlike behavior towards the referee at the Acapulco tournament, and the incident will be reviewed, the ATP said.
Zverev was fined $20,000 for verbal abuse and $20,000 for unsportsmanlike behavior (hitting the racket with the referee's chair) and will also be denied more than $31,000 of his tournament prize money as well as his singles and doubles world ranking points.
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German unsportsmanlike behavior #Alexander_Zverev assaults the referee in the Acapulco Championship in Mexico.. The Professional Players Federation announces his exclusion from the tournament pic.twitter.com/0Qrkllg2ku
- Dubai Sports Channel (@dubaisportstv) February 23, 2022
The players union will investigate the incident, which could eventually lead to a larger penalty.
In 2019, Australian Nick Kyrgios was punished with an initial fine of 113,000 dollars, before being suspended for 16 weeks and subjected to an additional fine of 25,000 dollars after an internal investigation by the Professional Association.
After losing the doubles on Tuesday, Zverev approached the referee's bench and delivered several hits with his racket to the bench.
And the 2020 US Open runner-up went to the referee again and verbally abused him.
Zverev, last season's singles champion, has apologized for his behaviour.
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