Alexander Zverev attacks umpire’s chair

Alexander Zverev together with his partner Marcelo Melo were playing a tie-breaker doubles match against Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara at the Mexican Open on Tuesday night.

Zverev's abusive outburst

Zverev, believing the ball had been incorrectly called, began to argue with the umpire. On the next point, Glasspool and Heliovaara sealed the win (6-2 4-6 10-6) with an ace and Zverev lost it. He began hitting the umpire’s chair with his racket several times, once nearly missing the official’s foot. He could be heard shouting expletives at the official: "Look where the ball bounced, 8-6 in the tiebreak, for fu*k's sake. It's fu*king your line. You're a fu*king idiot.” The crowd seemed to be on the umpire’s side, yelling out sounds of "hey" and "boos" when Zverev was trowing his toddler tantrum. The umpire started climbing down and Zverev continued yelling at him and even took another swing.

Consequences of Zverev's behavior

The 24-year-old was immediately thrown out of the tournament for unsportsmanlike conduct. The supervisor will decide whether or not to withhold his prize money and give him a fine. Furthermore, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) will decide if the outburst will be considered a “Player Major Offense”. If they decide that it does constitute as such, he would be issued a large fine and possible suspension from the tour.

What we do know is that Zverev’s singles opponent, Peter Gojowczyk, was given a walkover to the quarterfinals.

The incident occurred just a day after Zverev and Jenson Brooksby played a match which lasted until nearly five in the morning, a record which surpassed the 2008 Australian Open match between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis. It’s a shame that he let the lack of sleep and stress get to him, as he was the second seed and had claimed a 3-6-7-6 (10-8) victory. He is currently ranked no.3 in the world in singles tennis.