Slap in the face and police action at the Tennis Europe Meeting
At a board meeting of Tennis Europe, fisticuffs broke out, to which the police were also called.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Mar 02, 2022, 10:20 pm
Nerves are on edge practically everywhere at the moment, and the war in Ukraine is understandably lacking in composure, especially among people from Eastern Europe. This unrest does not stop at tennis either, the statements from the professional scene on Russia's war of aggression are already extensively documented on tennisnet.com. It is not surprising that there is also a lot of simmering at the official level, but the proportions seem comparatively bizarre.
Thomas Hammerl, former ÖTV managing director and now CEO of the European Tennis Federation (Tennis Europe), was slapped in the face by the secretary of the Ukrainian tennis association Evgeniy Zukin at a meeting last weekend. The Tennis Europe board meeting was held at the Turkish club Mega Saray in Antalya. Zukin became angry because, in his opinion, the European tennis federation had made too weak a statement on the current conflict.
Hordorff demands consequences
Tennis Europe had suspended all junior events in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and issued a statement calling on the international tennis community to show solidarity with players from the nations affected, none of whom are being punished for the actions of their home countries' regimes or should be blamed. Feeling betrayed, Zukin admitted to punching Hammerl in the face later that day.
Zukin was then taken to a local police station after officers were called to the altercation. The Ukrainian apologized to Hammerl for the incident, who immediately accepted the Eastern European's statement. Dirk Hordorff, vize president of the German Tennis Federation, on the other hand, called for disciplinary consequences against Zukin on Facebook: "In such a case, every player would be banned for several months."