Former world No. 1 Justine Henin has described the recent behavior of Victoria Azarenka and Alexander Bublik as “unacceptable” as she underlines that a player can’t simply walk off the court when he doesn’t feel like playing.Â
Azarenka was down by a set and a break to Linda Fruhvirtova in the Miami third round when she simply walked to the chair umpire and retired the match.Â
After the match, Azarenka issued the statement, in which she opened about the difficult period she had been going through.Â
This week in Monte Carlo, Bublik was 4-3 down to Pablo Carreno Busta in the deciding set when he retired for no apparent reason.Â
The match before, Bublik stated that he hates clay.Â
“There are images that are unacceptable: players who quit matches for no apparent reason, at least for no reason we know, like Bublik,” Henin said. “We saw it also with Azarenka recently. There are still people who pay for their tickets, televisions that pay fees, sponsors who put a lot of money to be able to pay these players. I find that unacceptable.”
Henin called out the Alexander Zverev behaviorÂ
Also, Henin wasn’t happy with the light punishment Zverev was handed for his Acapulco meltdown.Â
Henin thought Zverev absolutely deserved to be suspended.Â
“We have to take action,” Henin said on Eurosport Tennis Club.
“We hope concrete action will be taken so that these extremes stop. You can’t yell at an umpire. Even if there is no intention, it is a problem to break a racquet that flies as far as a ball boy.
“You can be tired… but we can’t see the images of Alexander Zverev again. These are behaviours of intimidation, of rage, which we cannot see and which we must punish much more severely.
“He should not be on the court today, Alexander Zverev.”