German was expelled from Acapulco tournament for assault on umpire's chair
DUBAI: While the aftershocks of Alexander Zverev's careless strikes against chair umpire Alessandro Germani's seat in Acapulco were felt across the tennis world, action at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis championships, an ATP 500 Series event, went to plan as world No. 1 Novak Djokovic led the top guns into the quarterfinals.
Djokovic, who is returning to action after what has been a contentious last month, a part of which he spent in a detention centre in downtown Melbourne, arrived in the UAE with his family, wife and children and full coaching team, in tow. Leading the cheers of near full-house was the Serbian superstar's former coach German legend Boris Becker. Djokovic then rode the wave to pull off a 6-3, 7-6(2) win over Russian Karen Khachanovon a chilly desert night.
Joining Djokovic in the last-eight was the second-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev and the fourth-seeded Italian Jannik Sinner, who avenged his loss 2021loss to Andy Murray with a straight-set result of his own. Zverev, the defending singles champion at the Mexican Open, was seething during the decisive super tie-break of his doubles outing. He was playing alongside his good friend Marcelo Melo. The duo went down 6-10 to Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara after splitting the first two sets. Unhappy with a line call, the German charged at the chair umpire after the match. The 24-year-old was subsequently withdrawn from the Acapulco event after what appeared to be a blatant act of intimidation.
This is not the first time that Zverev's anger management issues have come to light. The German, ranked No. 3 in the world, has been bracketed as 'tough to coach', he has also been accused of domestic violence by his former girlfriend Olga Sharypova.
Murray stepped up to the line, labelling Zverev's action as reckless. "It was not good. It was dangerous, reckless," the Scot said. "I understand lots of player s, athletes across lots of sports, can get very frustrated. Certainly me, myself, I've not always acted in the way I would want to on the tennis court. I'm certainly not claiming to be an angel. I'm not perfect myself."
