It’s Hard To Find The Feel-Good Angle Of Alexander Zverev

This past Sunday, Alexander Zverev won his first major title. On the surface, the 29-year-old's Roland-Garros victory is the story of a player who, after roughly a decade of high expectations, accomplished the signature feat in his sport while benefiting from injuries and early upsets that removed the biggest obstacles in the men's bracket from his path. Perhaps it's the story of an elite athlete succeeding despite a childhood type-1 diabetes diagnosis that requires him to regulate his blood sugar levels during competition, or the story of a player who finally conquered the nerves that previously undermined his talent once he arrived at the late stage of a major. But for many journalists and a large swath of the tennis-watching public, it's also the story of a player who has faced allegations of domestic violence from two previous partners.

The first accuser, Olya Sharypova, took her allegations public in 2020 through interviews with journalist Ben Rothenberg. Sharypova accused Zverev of repeated instances of physical abuse, including him punching and choking her. There were no legal charges; the ATP commissioned an independent investigation and concluded that there was "insufficient evidence" to substantiate the allegations. (Zverev filed a lawsuit against Rothenberg in German court over the reporting; the case is "winding down," according to Rothenberg.)

Brenda Patea, the second accuser and mother of Zverev's daughter, took him to trial in Germany. Court records obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said that Patea accused Zverev of pushing and strangling her. At every turn, Zverev has claimed that the allegations are false, and, as recently as this past weekend, he has claimed that he has been proven innocent in court, even though the 2024 out-of-court settlement does not constitute a ruling on his innocence or guilt.