Less than six months ago, Alexander Zverev made a gesture that was so selfless that it immediately won the hearts of the Australians.
He promised to donate $ 10,000 to the Bushfire appeal for every match he won at the Australian Open, and his full prize of $ 4 million if he won the tournament.
Now he is put down by Nick Kyrgios, Australia’s leading tennis star, because of his “selfishness” and branded as “wildly self-centered” by one of the game’s most respected voices.
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For the 23-year-old, this is an astonishingly fast crash, but it is completely representative of the nature of 2020.
Life can change instantly – and it certainly did for world number 7, which now has to take up the parts of its shattered reputation.
Zverev celebrated his party
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The tidal wave of condemnation that fell on Zverev was entirely up to him.
Just days after escaping Novak Djokovic’s Adria tour without a corona virus, footage of him partying in a busy Monaco bar appeared.
This was released at a time when he was supposed to isolate himself after being in close contact with Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric, Viktor Troicki and Goran Ivanisevic, all of which tested positive for Corona virus last week.
“How selfish can you be?” Kyrgios asked.
NY Times tennis writer Ben Rothenberg said, “This is my concern that tennis is trying to return in the middle of the pandemic: not that precautions cannot be taken, but that too many tennis players are conditioned to be wildly self-centered and to have no concept of how to act for the greater interest of a larger group. “
To further upset the tennis world was that Zverev claimed that he had already learned a lesson.
He was part of the shirtless crew – including Djokovic – who was set on fire in a nightclub in Serbia and in the middle of the pandemic.
When so many of his colleagues in Croatia were diagnosed with COVID-19 days later, Zverev apologized in a statement.
Kyrgios torches Zverev
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“I sincerely apologize to anyone who may have endangered me on this tour,” said the 23-year-old in a statement. “I will continue to follow the self-isolating guidelines recommended by our doctors. As an additional precaution, my team and I will test regularly. “
The tennis world now sees Zverev’s feelings as meaningless.
“If you are bold enough to post a tweet that your management wrote on your behalf, say that you will isolate yourself for 14 days, and apologize to the public for putting your health at risk the audacity to stay in the house for 14 days, my god, ”said Kyrgios.
“Jesus man, make me angry, this tennis world makes me angry, seriously, how selfish can you all be?”
Nevertheless, Zverev is not without his top-class support.
Boris Becker came out of the woodwork this week and called Kyrgios a “rat” for his openness to Zverev and other members of the Adriatic Tour, namely Djokovic.
In response, Kyrgios called on Zverev for his “idiotic” actions and told Becker that he was only “looking for people”.
But this circus has somewhat distracted Zverev’s attention, which, unlike the first instance, remains silent.
A Twitter survey conducted by Rothenberg with more than 6,500 votes found that 33.7 percent of tennis fans believe Zverev should apologize.
Given the superficiality of his first remorse, 59.2 percent of people show that there is no point in trying a second.
This number is not surprising since people are angry and feel like Zverev has sold a lie.
“To watch this video … it was really difficult for me to watch it. The video made me angry, ”said sports broadcaster Catherine Whitaker The tennis podcast.
“It was actually possibly my lowest point in this whole Adriatic Tour disaster because all I could think of when I saw this video was the sacrifices, compromises and painful decisions that people made in the course of this pandemic, this crisis . Not just for their own sake, but for the sake of others, for the sake of people they don’t even know, for the common good.
“And this multimillionaire can’t even stay in his supposedly very nice house in Monte Carlo for two weeks. And he surely cannot disregard the rules without getting some recognition for sticking to them by posting the statement he made.
“It made my blood boil. To be honest, I found it really hard to take. “
BBC commentator David Law was similarly amused, adding, “He’s not a stupid man. I think he has a brain personally when I see him and hear him speak …
“But he either has a complete blind spot or he just doesn’t care. Neither is acceptable to me. It’s absolutely horrifying that he just thought, “Oh forget it, I want to go to a party.”
“Whatever made him do it … it’s pretty shameful.”
In any case, Zverev is silent.
It’s almost as if he knows that everything he does next could define his reputation indefinitely – if it’s not too late.
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