The Tennis Professionals Association announced that it had imposed an 8-week ban on German Alexander Zverev, with a fine of $25,000, but suspended.
This came against the background of his attack on the referee during his participation in the Acapulco Games in Mexico last month, which led to his expulsion.
The association had previously punished the 24-year-old German with $40,000 after hitting the referee’s chair with his racket in the doubles competitions in the Acapulco tournament, as an expression of his anger at the loss, which led to his expulsion from the singles competitions.
And Monday decided to punish him with an eight-week suspension, provided that he does not repeat the violation of the rules of the Association for a period of 12 months until February 22, 2023.
“If the conditions are met, the penalties will be officially canceled after the end of the period (12 months),” the association said.
“If the conditions are not met, the penalties will be applied after exhausting any appeal process,” she added.
The third world number one apologized for what happened, and said in the wake of the incident: “I apologized in particular to the referee of the chair,” describing his behavior caused by anger as “unacceptable.”
And the Olympic gold holder continued: “I have no excuse, this should not have happened. I ask forgiveness from my fans, the tournament and the sport that I love. As you know, I give everything on the field. Tuesday (February 22), I gave a lot.”
The German went out of his way after losing the match with his Brazilian teammate Marcelo Melo to British duo Lloyd Glaspool and Finn Harry Heliovara in the “Super Thai Break” tiebreak 2-6, 6-4, 6-10.
A video clip circulated by the media showed Zverev hitting the referee’s chair three times in a row, Alessandro Germani, to make him sit on his seat, before getting up again and insulting him and repeatedly hitting the chair.
This behavior led to his expulsion from the singles competitions, and his career in the tournament ended in the second round.
Professional tennis players rarely face an expulsion of this type. Zverev preceded the feisty American John McEnroe when he was eliminated from the Australian Championships in 1990 for insulting the referee, in addition to the Australian Nick Kyrgios in Rome 2019 for throwing a chair on the field.
Serbian Novak Djokovic was expelled from Flushing Meadows 2020 for inadvertently hitting the ball towards the wisdom of the line. Canadian Denis Shapovalov experienced a similar experience when he injured the referee’s eye during the 2017 Davis Cup, and Argentine David Nalbandian was denied the final of the 2012 Queen’s Tournament because he inadvertently injured the line referee.