The ATP, the governing body of the men’s tennis tournament, announced that it will impose a fine of 40 thousand dollars (35 thousand euros) on German Alexander Zverev, who was last Wednesday. He was kicked out of the Acapulco tournament for hitting the base of the referee’s chair four times After the doubles match he played with Marcelo Mello. Likewise, the third-placed in the world will lose the prizes he won for reaching the round of 16 in the singles category (22,300 euros) and the first round of doubles (6,200 euros).
Zverev, the 24-year-old and last summer’s Olympic champion, put up an ugly display two days ago when, falling to the duo formed by Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool and Finland’s Harry Heliovara, he sped off in a fury. He gave several rackets to the tower where the referee is during matches. Previously, the person from Hamburg – who went to bed that day at 7:30 am, having finished his previous match at 4:55, a tennis record time – had uttered several insults against Judge Alessandro Germani, who had faced him . With the aggressiveness of the player he had to leave the track early for fear of a bigger attack.
After analyzing the episode, the ATP decided to apply the maximum fine for each infraction; Specifically, $20,000 (17,800 euros) for “verbal abuse” and another $20,000 for “unsportsmanlike behaviour”. The agency, however, stated that it had not yet closed the investigation and would conduct an “additional review”. At the moment, the sentence has been reduced to a light economic reprimand, given the seriousness of the accident, and that just for his sporting merits, Zverev has collected more than half a million euros this season and more than 26 million throughout his career.
In sporting terms, the 19-year-old German will automatically lose the 500 points he earned last year with his victory in Acapulco.
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