There have been similar incidents
Now his environment will point out that all this has already happened. “I’ll shove that damn ball down your damn throat” exclaimed the much-admired Serena Williams to a linesman in a semi-final of the US Open in 2009.
And Karolina Pliskova was so annoyed by everything and everyone in Rome in 2018 as number one that she also maltreated the referee’s chair in the best Zverev manner. Even Maestro Roger Federer, the gentleman of the current generation, once went for his own racquet, even if it was a long time ago.
But none of that helps: Zverev’s behavior was unworthy of an Olympic champion, even shameful, especially since he presented himself so happily with his gold medal in Tokyo because he finally wanted to be liked. No matter how many aces he could serve up, the Schlaks had not yet penetrated the hearts of the German sports public.
When Germany’s sports journalists voted him athlete of the year shortly before Christmas – under the impression of his impressive victory at the ATP World Championship – his luck seemed perfect.
A real sports star behaves differently
It seemed that these two awards would point the way to a real sports star. And now, in distant Acapulco, he behaves like a scuffle in the schoolyard, claiming the rights of the strongest.
Zverev urgently needs a corrective in his cosmos. Be it through his trainer, advisor or father. And if all of that doesn’t work, he has to get psychological help, because it’s not too late to learn how to better deal with pent-up aggression in other ways.
When a tennis star sends such images around the world, which are spreading at breakneck speed today, it is fatal. As by far the most successful tennis player of his generation, he ultimately serves as a role model for children and young people. To say that he doesn’t live up to it would be a shameless understatement.
Zverev apologized for his behavior after the game. “There is no excuse,” he writes on Instagram. Regardless of this regret, the best German tennis player has damaged his image with his shots in Mexico.
It will take a lot of mastered matches and preferably also a further credible analysis of this freak out to polish his reputation halfway again. But scratches will probably stay forever.