Police were called to a Tennis Europe meeting over the weekend after an altercation involving the organisation’s chief executive and the Ukrainian Tennis Federation secretary. Evgeniy Zukin from the UTF admitted he “slapped” Thomas Hammerl in the face after he was left unhappy with Tennis Europe’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boiled over at a Tennis Europe board meeting held at Turkey’s Club Mega Saray in Antalya over the weekend.
The secretary of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation told The Telegraph he had “slapped” Tennis Europe’s CEO in the face, in an incident that resulted in the police being called.
Evgeniy Zukin was left furious after Tennis Europe gave a “disgracefully weak” statement on the ongoing conflict in a Zoom meeting of board members on Saturday afternoon.
Tennis Europe suspended all junior events in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and in the statement called on “the international tennis community to show solidarity to players from the nations concerned, none of whom should be punished or blamed for the actions taken by the regimes in their home countries”.
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Zukin was left feeling failed as the statement failed to condemn Russia’s actions towards Ukraine and admitted he slapped Hammerl in the face later that day when he noticed the Tennis Europe chief sat a few tables away from him at the Club Mega Saray.
“I read the statement, finished my dinner, stood up, turned around, saw him [Hammerl] sitting five tables near me, and asked him ‘How come you could do this?’ He said ‘Go away’. I gave him a light slap and walked away,” he told Telegraph Sport.
Zukin was taken to a local police station in Antalya after officers were called to the altercation.
He gave a statement and apologised to Hammerl, accepted by the Tennis Europe chief executive after Zukin acknowledged he overreacted.
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