Alexander Zverev news: Top coach admits German ‘went too far’, but slams those who ‘pull players down’

ATP Tour

Shahida Jacobs
March 22, 2022

Alexander Zverev made a mistake with his Acapulco outburst and it will be bad for his image in the short term, but he will learn from his mistake, according to Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

German Zverev hit the headlines for the wrong reasons at the end of February as he was expelled from the Mexican Open after he verbally abused a chair umpire and also hit the official’s chair with his racket.

He was fined and lost his ranking points for the event while the ATP later added an additional fine and an eight-week ban with both suspended for a year.

Many felt the ATP should have come down harder on Zverev with Mats Wilander suggesting he should have been sent for rehabilitation and 23-time Grand Slam winner Williams saying the punishment would have been harsher if it happened on the WTA Tour.

Mouratoglou feels Zverev overstepped the boundaries, but he is also unimpressed with those who jumps on the bandwagon and “pulls players down” when they made a mistake.

“When I saw the images of Sascha in Acapulco shouting and hitting the chair umpire’s chair I thought ‘oof, he’s in trouble’,” he said on his YouTube channel.

“I realise that he went too far. It’s one thing to lose your temper, but you still need to have boundaries and he went too far.

“In the tennis world where everybody is supposed to be perfect all the time, I think it is bad for his image on the short term. On the long term people forget.”

He added: “It is the responsibility of the ATP to take the sanctions that they feel are necessary.

“I don’t like when someone makes a mistake and everybody jumps on that person and pulls him down.

“I think it was a bit too much, what people said.

“I know we are in a sport where people think the athlete should be showing perfection all the time, everything that is not in line with that is shocking to them.

“I am not surprised that people expect heavy sanctions because we are in the tennis. In soccer if there are these types of sanctions 90% of the players won’t play soccer anymore.

“He shouted, he hit the chair, it’s wrong, it’s a mistake, he said that, he’s going to have a punishment, it’s fine. We all learn by making mistakes.”

Alexander Zverev Patrick Mouratoglou