Why Alexander Zverev is allowed to play despite domestic abuse allegations (2024)

Amid the sublime excellence of Carlos Alcaraz and the astonishing season of Novak Djokovic, a dark cloud hangs over men’s tennis.

That would be Alexander Zverev, the reigning Olympic singles champion from Germany and one of the top players of the past five years.

Zverev, 26, was seemingly on his way to stardom during the early years of his career. However, accusations of spousal abuse from former girlfriends have forced him and his sport to face difficult questions — about what happened between Zverev and those women, one of whom is the mother of his child, and about how the leaders of the sport should respond when a player has been accused of abuse or, in the case of the most recent charges against Zverev, subject to an initial judgment of guilt.

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Zverev has denied all the allegations. Other than the seven months of 2022 when he was recovering from a serious ankle injury and surgery, Zverev has been allowed to continue playing, as none of the sport’s governing bodies have taken any action against him.

Here is an explainer of where things stand for Zverev, who is participating in the elite ATP Finals this week in Turin, Italy.

What are the charges?

In multiple media interviews and in claims filed with German legal authorities, Brenda Patea, the mother of Zverev’s daughter, has said Zverev pushed her against a wall and choked her during an argument in 2020. 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.

Zverev has denied Patea’s allegation.

Hasn’t Zverev faced claims like these before?

Yes. In 2021, another former girlfriend, Olya Sharypova, a former Russian tennis player, accused Zverev of repeatedly abusing her in 2019 in New York, Shanghai, Monaco and Geneva when they were romantically involved. Unlike Patea, Sharypova never involved the criminal justice system in her case, casting her assault allegations in a lengthy article in Slate and on social media.

Zverev denied those allegations as well. His lawyers went so far as to ask a German court to order Slate to cease publication of the story. The German court issued the order but Slate, which is based in the United States, where libel and defamation laws are far more permissive, has stood by its reporting and declined to take down the story.

Was there an investigation?

After much prodding from some prominent players, including Andy Murray (below), the ATP, which runs men’s tennis, hired the Lake Forest Group, a third-party consultant, to work with its outside legal counsel, the Florida-based firm Smith Hulsey & Busey, to conduct a 15-month investigation of Sharypova’s allegations. In January, the ATP announced that investigators had found insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations and that it would take no disciplinary action against Zverev. Both Zverev and Sharypova participated in the investigation. The ATP announced its conclusions in a news release but did not publish a report.

Andy Murray supported the ATP’s investigation (Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

What about an investigation into the Patea allegations?

The ATP has not followed a similar tack with Patea. Because she has pursued charges through Germany’s legal system, the ATP has opted not to take any action or make any comments on the case while it proceeds, calling such a move “inappropriate.”

But hasn’t Zverev been found guilty?

In October, a criminal court in Berlin issued a penalty order, fining Zverev nearly $500,000 in connection with Patea’s charges. In Germany, a prosecutor can seek a penalty order on cases it considers simple because there is compelling evidence that should not require a trial. The defendant has a right to contest the order, which Zverev has. A public trial is expected in the coming months.

In a statement last week, Zverev’s representatives at the German firm Schertz Bergmann said, “The procedure is scandalous, there can be no question of a fair, constitutional procedure. Mr Zverev will take action against this using all means possible.”

So if a court has issued a penalty against him for domestic abuse, why is he still allowed to play?

Essentially, because there is nothing that says he can’t. Amid the initial investigation of the charges against Zverev, the ATP pledged to develop a so-called safeguarding policy in the same way it has a policy on doping, cheating and bad behavior on the tennis court. That has become a years-long process.

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In March, Andrew Azzopardi, who led Malta’s Safeguarding Commission and served as a case manager for England’s Football Association, began his tenure as the ATP Tour’s director of safeguarding. Simon Higson, a spokesman for the ATP Tour, said Azzopardi is leading the efforts to develop a safeguarding policy, describing it as a “work in progress”.

The other main governing bodies in tennis that could be involved, the four Grand Slams and the International Tennis Federation, have largely ignored the allegations, at least publicly.With the exception of Tennis Australia, which organizes the Australian Open, they did not respond to a request for comment fromThe Athletic. A spokeswoman for Tennis Australia said the organization agreed with the ATP’s assessment that it would be inappropriate to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.

Would this happen in other sports?

Probably not, at least not after the U.S. Major American sports leagues scrambled to develop domestic violence policies when a video surfaced in 2014 of Ray Rice, a star running back, punching his fiancee.

In the NFL, for example, the league conducts an investigation whenever it becomes aware of a possible violation of its personal conduct policy, which includes domestic violence and partner abuse. Players and other NFL employees can be placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of investigations and legal proceedings, at which point the league can enact additional suspensions and penalties. In soccer, Manchester United forward Antony was recently withdrawn from the Brazil squad and placed on a leave of absence by his club — on full pay — following accusations, which he strongly denies, that he attacked former partner Gabriela Cavallin and two other women.

Such a policy could be problematic for tennis players, who are independent contractors who don’t receive salaries from the ATP Tour and collect money only when they play.

(Top photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)