Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev lost his composure after his double defeat at the ATP tournament in Acapulco and vented his anger at the referee’s chair. The German didn’t have to wait long for the consequences.
After the 1: 2 (2: 6, 6: 4, 6:10) alongside Marcelo Melo (Brazil) against Lloyd Glasspool/Harri Heliövaara (Great Britain/Finland), the 24-year-old gave free rein to his frustration.
Zverev yelled loudly at the referee after the first round match (“You fucking idiot” – you damn idiot) and kept hitting his racquet hard on his chair, just missing his feet.
Zverev now has to bear the consequences for his freak out, because the German number one was excluded from the tournament in Acapulco.
In singles, Zverev had reached the round of 16 the day before. The German number one defeated the American Jenson Brooksby 3: 6, 7: 6 (12:10) in a historic night shift on Tuesday shortly before 5 a.m. local time. No tour level match had ended that late.
His next match would have been on Thursday night (CET) against Peter Gojowczyk from Munich. Zverev is no longer allowed to deny this because of “unsportsmanlike conduct”, as the ATP Tour announced. Gojowczyk thus moves into the quarter-finals without a fight.