World number 3 Alexander Zverev, of Acapulco after repeatedly hitting the referee’s chair with his racket during a doubles match, has been fined $40,000 by the ATP.
• Read also: Alexander Zverev apologised
The 24-year-old German, who was crowned Olympic champion in Tokyo last summer, also witnessed his victories in Mexico with a total of $31,570 in addition to the points he earned in the classification of matches he played.
In detail, Zverev was punished for both insults and unsportsmanlike behavior with fines of $20,000 for each violation.
“This represents the maximum fine for each violation,” the association said, adding that a “post review” would be conducted, according to the department’s rules.
Zverev had “asked forgiveness” after being slapped on Tuesday. And he added, in a blog post on his Instagram account, that he “especially apologized to the President of the Court, Alessandro Germani, after detonating the” unacceptable “against him, he said.
The German had gone out of his mind after losing his doubles tiebreak match with Brazilian Marcelo Melo against Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool and Finland’s Harry Heliovara 6-2, 4-6, 10-6.
Video footage showed Zverev hitting the referee’s chair three times, sitting up and then getting up to insult the referee and kicking the racket for the last time.
After his outburst, the double-winner of the Masters title (2018, 2021) was disqualified from the singles tournament in Acapulco, and thus was unable to play his second round on Wednesday against fellow countryman Petr Jojowczyk.
His behavior was condemned by Rafael Nadal, the semi-finalist in Mexico, as well as by Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, who participated in the Dubai Championship organized in conjunction with the Acapulco Championship.
