"Tennis would be boring if there were only nice guys like Federer " says former Australian Open runner-up Anke Huber about Zverev

According to former player and Australian Open runner up, Anke Huber, tennis would be boring if there were just ‘nice guy’ personalities like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Despite that belief, Huber doesn’t want this to turn into disrespectful behaviour but admitted having some outpouring of emotion on the court was a good thing that fans should see more of. Even just over the past few weeks, Zverev was kicked out of the Mexican Open after hitting the umpire’s chair with his racket.

Nick Kyrgios was fined for narrowly missing a ball boy when he threw his racket at the Indian Wells Masters and then was fined again after arguing with the umpire at the Miami Open. Speaking about it to Eurosport, she said:

“I was very emotional on the court but I never projected that onto the referee, only onto myself – John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors used to make it quite normal for the referee to be attacked. Later we had this phase with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who always behaved sportsman-like and very fairly, but if everyone just looks straight ahead and doesn’t make a peep, it gets boring."

She further said:

“I don’t think emotions are bad but they mustn’t be insulting and must remain within certain limits, if it gets too much you shouldn’t take the boys apart right away. With Alexander Zverev in Acapulco it was extreme, nobody liked seeing that, in my eyes however this is not his true face, he had played until five in the morning the day before, sometimes you have to look at the circumstances because he was certainly physically drained, but that’s no excuse."