Causa Zverev: A limit has been crossed for Alex Antonitsch
The referees should not become fair game, demands ex-professional and Kitzbühel boss Alex Antonitsch in view of Alexander Zverev 's freak in Acapulco.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Feb 25, 2022, 01:53 pm
Only a few centimeters were missing, then Alexander Zverev would have injured the chair referee Alessandro Germani with his punches during his outburst of anger late on Tuesday evening in Acapulco. In doing so, the German has crossed a line, explained Alex Antonitsch in an interview with derstandard.at . "There is no excuse for that, you can only condemn it."
It's okay to argue and debate with the referee, but Zverev clearly crossed a line, yes, broke a taboo. In any case, the German number one did not act in the affect. After the disqualification for Acapulco, the ATP now has to follow suit with another sanction. “Otherwise the referees are fair game. You have to make a mark. This incident was not a knee-jerk reaction. He had time to think, there was a handshake in between.”
In the meantime, Zverev has been fined 40,000 US dollars, and the prize money in Acapulco of 31,000 US dollars has also been withheld.
Djokovic comments on Zverev
After the incident, Zverev initially apologized to the referee personally and also to the public via social media. The next scheduled start is actually the performance at Tennis Paradise in Indian Wells. Should Zverev be excluded from this, the second top-class player would probably be missing. Because Novak Djokovic's participation is very unlikely due to the prevailing vaccination mandate.
Djokovic had also commented on the Zverev case before he left Dubai against Jri Vesely. And meant that the disqualification in Acapulco wasn't too hard. But Zverev will learn from this mistake.