Alexander Zverev, accused of mistreatment, Alcaraz obstacle

Alexander Zverev, one of the best tennis players in the world, rival of Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, will be tried in May in Berlin, accused in a case of sexist violence against an ex-partner.

The episode happened in Berlin and also in May 2020. That day, Zverev, currently number six in the world, allegedly pushed and cornered Brenda Patea against the wall of an apartment and grabbed her forcefully by the neck, suffocating her for a few minutes. seconds.

According to the Tiergarten district court, the athlete is accused of “physically abusing the woman during the argument, endangering her health.”

In November of last year, said court already imposed a fine of 450,000 euros for “assault”, but the tennis player rejected the charges and appealed the ruling.

Moments before his debut in the Australian tournament last Tuesday, Zverev was informed that he will be judged this spring.

He and Patea had a daughter in March 2021.

According to court documents, two friends of the woman corroborated her version, as did the Public Ministry after having subjected her to an exhaustive psychological examination.

In an interview with the German media

Südeutsche Zeitung

last November, Patea assured that Zverev's lawyers presented him with a nine-page contract to guarantee the stability of their daughter, which included a payment of 100,000 euros, maintenance and right to live in one of the athlete's properties.

All this, as long as Patea traveled at least six times with his son to ATP tour tournaments, deleted all publications with the minor from social networks and “kept the most written secret of all the details of their previous life together.” .

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Before this episode occurred, Zverev was accused by his previous girlfriend, Olga Sharypova, of having hit her and grabbed her by the neck, in addition to having a controlling attitude during a stay in Shanghai in October 2019. The facts also refer to chapters in Monte Carlo, New York and Geneva.

In 2021, the body that regulates the men's circuit, the ATP, opened an external investigation – led by The Lake Forest Group – that “could not corroborate the accusations of abuse” and concluded that there were no “reliable indications and evidence” of that it was an episode of sexist violence.

After collecting text messages, audios and images, and interviewing 24 other people, the ATP decided not to take any action against the player, one of the icons of the current intermediate generation.

Zverev enters the Melbourne court.Darrian Traynor (Getty Images)

Zverev, of Russian descent, was born in Hamburg 26 years ago and has become one of the best players in the history of his country, surpassed only by Steffi Graf (22 majors), Boris Becker (6) and Angelique Kerber (3) .

Although the reward of a

major

still eludes him , he already has 21 titles and also boasts of having won Olympic gold, and this Wednesday he will face Alcaraz (6-4, 6-4 and 6-0 Miomir Kecmanovic) in the quarterfinals.

He was one of the most promising players of his generation and collected more than 400 individual victories.

But also a long record of outbursts.

“The ATP has done nothing”

Without going any further, he violently hit the judge's chair in Acapulco, in 2022, and before that he was caught participating in a massive party during the pandemic, breaking the quarantine.

After suffering a serious ankle injury, for which he had to undergo surgery, he tries to be competitive again among the strongest.

He has beaten Nadal, Federer and Djokovic several times, and also dominates the individual with Alcaraz (4-3), and now aspires to join the Swede Stefan Edberg as the only one capable of winning the title in Australia both as a junior and in the category absolute.

However, in the face of an accusation of sexist violence, tennis takes a backseat.

Recently, Zverev was elected as a member of the ATP Player Council, the representation that oversees the conditions of professionals.

A choice that the number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek, did not like: “It is surely not good for a player who faces charges of this type to be promoted.”

The American Sloane Stephens, US Open champion in 2017 and one of the voices on the Players Council, also referred to the matter: “The ATP has not done anything in three years, so I do not think that in the next five months they will change things a lot.

"I am clear that if something like this had happened in our [WTA] circuit, the accused person would not be on the Council."

Zverev, on Monday against Norrie.ISSEI KATO (REUTERS)

The Russian Daria Kasatkina, for her part, criticized the television programming on her social networks and, in parallel, the German one.

“They don't show women's tennis on television.

“They are playing at Rod Laver [Melbourne Central] in prime time and I prefer not to say who they are playing…” she wrote.

Then, she reacted to a response from another user who said she would rather watch Zverev than a match between women, if none of them were Australian.

“If you are a woman,” the world number 13 addressed, “I advise you to do your research on the guy you want to see and think again.”

Silence predominates among the accused's colleagues.

Most of them say they do not know about the matter or have nothing to comment on.

The

Zverev case

has become a taboo subject behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, he was bothered by a question from a reporter, who last Thursday asked him if he will attend the May trial in Berlin, taking into account that he is not obliged to appear and that at that time he will be playing at Roland Garros.

“Wow, is that the question?

I just played for four hours and forty minutes;

“Not the first question I expected to hear, honestly,” he replied.

It was the only question in English he received.

But the tension doesn't stop there.

“Why wouldn't it be?” he replied when asked if his continuation on the

Players Council

was appropriate .

"Yes I think so.

"No one has told me anything," he said about whether or not he had the support of his colleagues, while ensuring that "some journalists are more interested in telling that story and generating clicks than in the truth."

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