Zverev had entered the doubles draw at this week’s Abierto Mexicano Telcel with his good friend and former doubles world No 1 Marcelo Melo.
The pair dropped the opening set of their match against Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara on Tuesday evening but fought back to win the second, taking it to a deciding match tiebreak.
But the singles world No 3 erupted when he thought a ball had unfairly been called out at 8-6 in the breaker, exclaiming: “Look where the ball bounced. It’s 8-6 in the tie-break, look where the ball bounced. For f*** sake, it’s your line. It’s f****** your line. You f****** idiot.”
Zverev and Melo’s opponents eventually won the match 6-2 4-6 10-6, after which the German started hitting the umpire’s chair in a fit of rage.
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Several players including Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have given their verdict on the outburst, saying the world No 3’s disqualification was justified, and Rafael Nadal has now agreed with Zverev’s punishment.
“It’s unfortunate, without a doubt,” the Spaniard, who is also playing in Acapulco this week, said.
“I feel sorry for him as I have a good relationship with Alexander.”
The recent Australian Open champion also hoped his withdrawal would act as an example for other young players to discourage them from similar outbursts.
He added: “In the end, he deserves the sanction because you can’t act in this way. I think Sascha is aware of that and I hope this will serve as a lesson for him and for other young players who sometimes lose control on the court.”
The incident will likely be investigated further by the ATP, with sanctions for such offences resulting in large fines and a suspension of anywhere between 21 days and one year.
While Nadal opted not to comment on further possible punishments for Zverev, he hinted that he thought it could be necessary to stop other players taking out their frustrations on officials.
“I am not going to enter into what is or is not fair in terms of sanction but in the end you have to stop that type of attitude from becoming fashionable,” he said.
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