This article has been updated to reflect the start of the Tiergarten Berlin district court hearing into the charges against Alexander Zverev, Friday May 31.
This article is part of the launch of extended tennis coverage on The Athletic, which will go beyond the baseline to bring you the biggest stories on and off the court. To follow our tennis coverage, click here.
In what looks to be one of the most wide-open Grand Slam tournaments in decades, conventional wisdom says Alexander Zverev has to be considered among the favorites for the men’s title at the French Open. In the same breath, from today, May 31, a domestic abuse hearing begins in the German city of Berlin, over charges that he abused a former girlfriend during an argument in 2020.
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Zverev has denied the charges, but in October the Berlin criminal court issued a penalty order, fining him €450,000 ($489,000; £384,000) in connection with the charges from Brenda Patea, a model and social media personality who is the mother of his daughter. In Germany, a prosecutor can seek a penalty order on cases it considers simple because there is compelling evidence that it should not require a trial.
The defendant has a right to contest the order, which Zverev has done. The court has scheduled a hearing to begin on May 31 and it will continue on a series of non-consecutive dates in June and July, including some that could occur during Wimbledon, and, if it goes longer than that, the Olympics back in Paris, where Zverev will try to win a second straight gold medal.
Zverev is not required to attend the hearing and he has said he has no plans to do so. Instead, he will be competing in the most coveted tournaments in the sport while under criminal investigation.
Zverev, a lanky, 6ft 6in (198cm) German, is a top clay-court player. He can play with power and touch and moves easily across the surface he grew up playing on as a child. He’s also a three-time French Open semifinalist and in 2022 he was giving Rafael Nadal, the greatest clay-courter of all time, all kinds of trouble there in their final-four duel. That was before Zverev tore ankle ligaments in that match, an injury that required surgery and months of rehabilitation.
He gave Nadal even more trouble in this year’s first round, beating him in straight sets on Philippe-Chatrier.
Here is a summary of the state of play.
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Patea has said Zverev pushed her against a wall and choked her during an argument. Patea has said she told friends about the incident but did not file a legal complaint for three years in part because of a sense of shame stemming from the incident. That changed last year when she went to the police and subsequently spoke about the incident in multiple media interviews.
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Zverev has denied Patea’s allegation. He initially called it “bullsh*t”. During the Australian Open in January, he said: “Anybody that has a semi-standard IQ level knows what this is all about.” He did not expand on that thought and reached the semi-finals of that tournament in an increasingly embarrassing series of wins for the ATP Tour.
He has faced accusations of spousal abuse before.
In 2021, another ex-girlfriend, Olya Sharypova, the former Russian tennis player, accused Zverev of repeatedly abusing her in 2019 in New York, Shanghai, Monaco and Geneva while they were romantically involved. Unlike Patea, Sharypova never involved the criminal justice system in her case, casting her assault allegations in a lengthy article with online magazine Slate and on social media.
Zverev denied those allegations as well. A private investigation of those charges paid for by the ATP Tour found there was not sufficient evidence to penalize him.
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When is the hearing in Berlin, and how long is it?
The hearing starts Friday May 31, but the case will not be heard over consecutive dates. Subsequent dates are scheduled for June 7, 11, 18 and 21, followed by 5, 12 and 19 July. These dates coincide with the French Open semi-finals (June 7) and the third round (July 5) and semi-finals (July 12) at Wimbledon.
Why is Zverev still allowed to play tennis?
Unlike most major sports leagues, tennis does not have a specific policy for punishing a player who is facing domestic abuse charges. The ATP Tour rulebook does allow for a provisional suspension of a player who is charged with a civil or criminal offense that is “contrary to the integrity of the Game of Tennis”, but the body has so far not used that policy in the case.
Zverev recently became a member of the tour’s Player Advisory Council. He said earlier this year he wanted to serve on the council to be a part of the ongoing discussions about the sport’s format and schedule.
The other entities that oversee men’s tennis, which include the four Grand Slam events and the International Tennis Federation, have so far followed the lead of the ATP Tour. All have chosen to let the legal process play out before deciding whether to levy any sort of punishment.
More than a year ago, the ATP Tour hired Andrew Azzopardi, who led Malta’s national Safeguarding Commission and served as a case manager for England’s Football Association, to become its director of safeguarding. The tour has said that Azzopardi is working on a policy on spousal abuse charges, or, in Zverev’s case, a preliminary judgment from the court in Berlin.
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Zverev’s legal team at German firm Schertz Bergmann has called the legal process “scandalous”.
“There can be no question of a fair, constitutional procedure,” it has said.
What do tennis players think about Zverev’s case?
Most players have said little about the situation. After the initial charges from Sharypova, Andy Murray was outspoken about the need for a clear policy and an investigation. Eventually, the ATP Tour hired the Lake Forest Group, a third-party consultant, to work with its outside legal counsel, Florida-based firm Smith Hulsey & Busey, and conduct what became a 15-month investigation.
Since that investigation concluded without finding sufficient evidence to penalize Zverev, most male players have opted not to comment on the latest charges. Among the women players, both Sloane Stephens and Iga Swiatek were critical of the process earlier this year, especially the ATP Tour’s decision to give Zverev a position on the players’ advisory board.
“Would that happen on the WTA Tour?” Stephens said. “Probably not.”
Swiatek, who tries to steer clear of controversy, said, “For sure, it’s not good when a player who’s facing charges like that is kind of being promoted.”
How have the charges been portrayed in tennis media?
While Zverev and his supporters in the sport have largely stayed away from any direct discussion of the preliminary judgment and the legal proceedings, he has otherwise tried to portray himself as a glamorous globetrotting tennis player, just like any other. The ATP Tour has cooperated with this effort.
The tour partnered with Netflix and Box To Box Films on Break Point, a docuseries/tennis commercial in the spirit of the wildly popular Drive To Survive about Formula 1 motor racing. An episode in the second season of the now-canceled series focused almost entirely on Zverev and his admirable comeback from the ligament surgery mentioned above. It even went so far as to portray him as the white knight in his rivalry with Daniil Medvedev, who was portrayed as an on-court villain and practitioner of the dark arts of tennis chaos.
The episode did not include a single mention of the spousal abuse charges. In addition to the on-court action, it showed Zverev padding around his Monte Carlo apartment with his current girlfriend and hobnobbing at a party with executives of Richard Mille, a luxury Swiss watch manufacturer.
Social media widely panned the episode and when Netflix canceled Break Point after two seasons, critics pointed to its sanitized treatment of a controversial personality as an example of one of the reasons the show failed to cultivate a large and broad audience.
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If he is found guilty, what might that mean for Zverev?
Penalties for domestic abuse in Germany range from a fine to a prison sentence; though if Zverev were to be found guilty, it’s unlikely that, as a first-time offender, he would serve time.
The other question is whether tennis would suspend or fine him. A suspension could be costly.
Already this year he has collected more than $3million in prize money. Tennis players don’t earn salaries. If they don’t play, they don’t get paid.
Also, Zverev has significant sponsorship deals with Adidas and Head, his clothing and racket sponsors. A guilty verdict would leave them with a decision to make about whether to retain him as an ambassador.
(Top photos: Lewis Storey/Getty Images; design: John Bradford)
