Alexander Zverev crossed the line in Mexico and rules around umpire abuse need to be stricter, says Alex Corretja

ByEurosport

Updated 24/02/2022 at 11:03 GMT

Alexander Zverev was booted out of the Mexican Open by tournament organisers for assaulting the umpire's chair after the German and his Brazilian doubles partner Marcelo Melo were beaten 6-2 4-6 10-6 by Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara. Eurosport's tennis expert Alex Corretja believes Zverev was deservedly kicked out and that stricter rules are needed around umpire abuse.

Watch the shocking moment Zverev attacks umpire’s chair with racquet

Eurosport’s Alex Corretja says Alexander Zverev crossed the line after he was disqualified from the Mexican Open for smashing a racquet by the feet of the umpire in his chair.

The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist has apologised for his unsportsmanlike conduct on Instagram while former British number one Andy Murray has said his actions were “dangerous” and “reckless”.

Corretja believes it was good that Zverev was showing his emotions on court, but feels he went too far on Tuesday night.

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“You need to control your emotions,” he said.

“Of course, I'm not in favour of breaking racquets. But I can understand that you can break a racquet. I did break racquets, and I'm not proud of it. I regret that.

“I think what happened to Sascha is he totally lost his mind. And it is different. If you go out there and break a racquet. That's not good, of course. The moment where you react and feeling your anger, you just destroy the racket because you're not playing well.

“When you are against the umpire, and you hit the racquet against the chair and try to smash the racquet you are insulting him/her. This is a line which you absolutely cannot cross.

“The good part is, of course, he's showing that he cares, caring about the doubles, which is good.

"But this is absolutely off the wall, you cannot do that. And it's fine if sometimes you just go out there and complain about yourself. But if you go further than that then that is too much."

This year's Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev and quarter-finalist Denis Shapovalov came under criticism in Melbourne for their conduct towards umpires.

Medvedev had an angry outburst towards the umpire in the second set of his semi-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas while Shapovalov shouted “you guys are all corrupt” in his quarter-final match against eventual champion Rafael Nadal.

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Corretja says there should be stricter rules for players who abuse the umpire.

He continued: “I'm in favour of showing emotions. Definitely. I think it's good for our sport for players to show that they're not robots or machines. But this is not what you want to see. This is about education and respect.

“These days, sometimes it feels like you can say whatever you want, anywhere. On social media you can insult someone, nothing happens. You can go in the street, you can shout at someone, and then you walk away. No. Not everything is possible in life. There are things that we cannot accept.

“Tennis has to be something where we need to show emotions, we need to show personalities. I am not against someone that is getting mad and shouts, even if he gets upset or frustrated, and sometimes he breaks a racquet. I'm not in favour, but it's fine.

“It's his racket, and he feels like this is the way I'm showing my frustration. It would be good to control that. But for the next time, I think you should learn but going against the umpire or calling the umpire corrupt, or shouting into the umpire or hit the racquet into the umpire’s chair.

"This is something that they should start being a little bit more strict about and show the players that there are lines in life that you cannot cross.

“And I think the rules should be a little bit stricter in order to show to the players that this is a serious sport, but also one with personality.”