Alexander Zverev’s Grand Slam wait is over. His uncomfortable status in tennis lingers
PARIS — On a pleasant Sunday afternoon, Alexander Zverev, for so long considered to be the best male player ever to not win a Grand Slam, finally achieved his goal. After three previous final defeats, Zverev, 29, collapsed onto the French Open clay — two years ago the scene of one of those losses — and covered his eyes as his chest heaved with emotion.
Everything in the 13 years since Zverev turned professional, as a precociously gifted teenager seemingly destined for the top of the sport, had been building toward one thing: The 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 win over Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, 24, that made Zverev a Grand Slam champion at last.
A player who has spent his whole career trying to get over the line finally did so, after a series of near-misses. As he stood with the Coupe des Mousquetaires, the sporting baggage that had weighed him down for years melted into the Roland Garros air.
Two years earlier, Zverev spent the third Sunday of the French Open in desolation. He had led Carlos Alcaraz by two sets to one, before succumbing to an inspired performance from the Spaniard, and lost in five sets.
Two days earlier, Zverev had come from a set down to reach that final, beating Norway’s Casper Ruud on June 7, 2024. On the same day, Zverev settled a case relating to domestic abuse charges brought by his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, Brenda Patea, out of court.
Ever since, Zverev’s ongoing quest for an elusive first Grand Slam title has divided fans and raised questions about how the men’s tour approaches allegations for which, until recently, it did not have a formal policy.
The settlement was announced at the Tiergarten District Court in Berlin.
“The decision is not a verdict and it is not a decision about guilt or innocence,” Tiergarten District Court spokesperson Inga Wahlen told The Athletic in 2024. “One decisive factor for the court decision was that the witness has expressed her wish to end the trial. The defendant agreed to the termination of the case.”
Zverev had to pay €200,000 ($218,000) as a result. €150,000 went to the state treasury, and the rest to non-profit organizations.
Zverev had repeatedly denied the accusations, and his defense attorneys, Dr. Anna Sophie Heuchemer and Katharina Dierlamm, issued a statement following the decision: “The discontinuation does not constitute a finding of guilt or an admission of guilt. The legal presumption of innocence remains unaffected.”
Zverev was separately accused of domestic abuse by his former girlfriend, Olya Sharypova, in 2020. He denied the allegations and said they were “unfounded.”
Sharypova did not pursue charges, and a 15-month investigation by the men’s ATP Tour found there was “insufficient evidence” to substantiate Sharypova’s allegations. Zverev did not face disciplinary action, and he was allowed to play throughout the 2024 case and the tour’s disciplinary process.
In a news conference following his semifinal win over Ruud two years ago, Zverev said: “They’re not going to drop the case if you’re guilty at the end of the day.
“Done. We move on. I never ever want to hear another question about the subject again.”
As he prepared to give his runner-up speech at the 2025 Australian Open, a woman in the crowd shouted out in apparent reference to the allegations: “Australia believes Olya and Brenda! Australia believes Olya and Brenda!”
“I believe there are no more accusations,” Zverev said in his news conference when asked about the incident. “There haven’t been for, what, nine months now. Good for her, I think she was the only one in the stadium who believed anything in that moment.”
The discontinuation of Zverev’s case two years ago, with a decision that was “not a verdict” and “not a decision about guilt or innocence,” has essentially left tennis in limbo.
Unlike Sharypova’s allegations, none of its governing bodies investigated the allegations from 2024, deciding instead to let the legal process reach its conclusion. While the ATP Tour was investigating Sharypova’s allegations, Zverev was allowed to play and win matches, make deep runs at tournaments and lift titles. He just did not win a major.
The ATP Tour did not have a specific policy on players who commit or are accused of committing domestic violence until December 2025, when it announced a safeguarding policy built on what it calls “a clear, global framework for preventing and responding to abuse, including cases of harassment, bullying, domestic violence and other forms of misconduct.”
Major North American sports leagues, the Premier League and a host of other sports organizations had previously adopted such policies during the last decade.
In the absence of such a policy, responses to the allegations against Zverev have largely been confined to the public sphere, in which fans support or root against him. His opponents are cast as players to be brushed aside, or as forces for good. Some perceived his possibly winning a major trophy as vindication; some perceived his not winning one as karmic.
The unsustainability of such a reckoning with Zverev was exposed Sunday. The world No. 3 and Olympic champion finally won one of the four biggest titles in the sport, which sends any first-time winner into a broader cultural consciousness and leaves the bodies and organizations that govern tennis with questions to answer about whether to, and how to celebrate him.
After the match was done, Cobolli, who is a good friend of Zverev, gave a generous runner-up speech. Zverev was similarly complimentary about Cobolli and his father.
Zverev was cheered on by the Parisian crowd, and after referencing his previous heartbreak on this court, said that this was a “happy end”.
Zverev’s wait for a Grand Slam title is over, his uncomfortable status within the sport is unchanged.