I asked Alexander Zverev about his DV allegations, and I wasn’t chasing clicks

It didn’t take long for word to spread through the tennis fraternity that a journalist at this year’s Australian Open was asking players about the Alexander Zverev issue at their post-match press conferences.

Awkward clips of players dodging the question were soon all over X, formerly Twitter, posted by tennis accounts and podcasts. The clips attracted criticism from tennis diehards seemingly upset and confused the matter was being raised, as well as praise and relief that someone was finally asking basic questions about a problem that had been swept under the rug.

World No.6 Alexander Zverev didn’t like what he heard when asked questions about the allegations. Credit: Getty

That problem is this: Zverev, a German player currently ranked sixth in the world and competing for a spot in the quarter-finals of this tournament, has been fighting allegations of domestic abuse for more than three years. The 26-year-old strenuously denies these allegations.

Allegations have been made by two women; ex-girlfriend Olga Sharypova, who made the claims of emotional and physical abuse in a 2020 article by tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg, and another ex-girlfriend, Brenda Patea, who claimed the tennis player pushed her against a wall and “choked” her during an argument.

The latter case is before a court in Berlin. Early last week, as the Australian Open got under way, German news agencies reported Zverev will stand trial on the charges after contesting a $740,000 fine issued by the court. The trial is scheduled for May, during the French Open.

So here we have a prominent tennis player – a former world No.2 – on trial over domestic violence allegations, who not only continues to play at the highest level but was only this month elected by his peers to the Player Advisory Council of the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs the men’s tour.

That is what I – along with my colleague Carla Jaeger – asked players, including Zverev, about last week. Put aside his guilt or innocence – that is for the courts to determine. But while this matter is unresolved, should he serve in a leadership position in the sport?

It was striking how male players refused to engage with the question at all. Stefanos Tsitsipas claimed to be “completely unfamiliar” with the situation. Cameron Norrie said it was “tough to comment”. Casper Ruud said he wasn’t sure how to react. Australia’s own Alex de Minaur said he preferred to stay out of “political decisions”.

The only person who actually engaged was Zverev himself, who, though aggrieved at being asked about the matter, said he had no reason to stand aside from the council and had not been asked to by his peers. He asserted it was only an issue because journalists were chasing “clicks”.

Female players, who are not part of the ATP, were a little more forthcoming, though they said it was ultimately a matter for the men’s tour. A belated response from the ATP to our questions said only: “We are aware of the upcoming legal trial involving Alexander Zverev, and will not be commenting until that process is complete.”

(The ATP previously commissioned an independent investigation into the Sharypova allegations, which in early 2023 found there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the claims.)

If this were politics, not sport, there is no way Zverev, his peers and the ATP would escape scrutiny to the extent they have so far. They would be hounded at every press conference until something of substance was said or done.

As someone from outside the world of tennis, and outside sports journalism, I’m surprised by the deafening, deliberate silence that surrounds this matter. Perhaps it is a function of co-dependency between players and press in the small group that travels the world covering tennis. Perhaps there is some Stockholm Syndrome-esque belief that players should only be asked inane questions about how they won or why they lost.

“They’re kind of covering their ears and eyes and going, ‘la, la, la’,” says Rothenberg, who has reported the story from the start. “It has been this whole exercise in trying to keep business as normal.”

It’s not just the tennis community that has tried to duck the issue. Zverev was the focus of an episode of the Netflix tennis series Break Point, released this month, which also ignored the allegations against him.

Sure, it is awkward to probe such a delicate subject. But Rothenberg says players “should be made uncomfortable about this situation”. And guess what? When they were, it revealed considerable interest in the story. Rothenberg said he received more interview requests about Zverev this week, once we started asking questions in Melbourne, than in any other 24-hour period.

It is not for journalists, players or Netflix to judge Zverev. At the same time, the tennis world has to be held responsible for its decisions. If the ATP believes it’s fine for Zverev to serve in a leadership position, and be promoted by the tour, while these questions hover over him, that’s OK – but it should say so, and explain why.

There is an elephant in the room and the determination not to acknowledge it has become a farce.

Michael Koziol is Sydney Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously deputy editor of The Sun-Herald and a federal political reporter in Canberra.

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