Zverev’s conviction does not stop the tennis association from allowing him to shine at the ATP Finals

Alexander Zverev looks into the camera with an intense gaze. His face is set, his eyes are slightly narrowed and he holds an outstretched index finger in front of his mouth. This is how the 26-year-old German tennis player, reigning Olympic champion and number 7 in the world rankings, appears in one of the many promotional photos distributed around the ATP Finals, the tournament in Turin with the best eight male players in the world.

The semi-finals and final will be played next weekend, and there is a chance that Zverev will be in action. In the group stage he is second in the ‘red’ group, after a victory over the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and a defeat against the Russian Daniil Medvedev. This Friday, Zverev will play his last group match against the Russian Andrej Rublev.

In recent weeks it has not been about Zverev’s comeback this year after a serious ankle injury, but about his behavior off the court. Two weeks ago, a court in Berlin fined him 450,000 euros for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, German model Brenda Patea, with whom he has a daughter. Zverev allegedly pushed her against a wall and choked her throat in 2020.

The German tennis player denies the accusations – he described them as “bullshit” a day after the verdict and announced he would appeal. He then traveled to Italy for the Finals of the ATP, the organization for men’s professional tennis. A prize pool of 15 million dollars (approximately 13.8 million euros) will be distributed in Turin. “It is an honor to be here,” Zverev said early this week. “I try to enjoy the moment as much as possible.”

Previous accusation

It shouldn’t be easy for the ATP to see Zverev achieve success at their year-end tournament. He is not being identified as the perpetrator for the first time. In 2020, another ex, Russian former tennis player Olga Sharipova, accused him of mentally and physically abusing her in 2019. Zverev is also said to have attempted to strangle her.

Sharipova did not report the matter, but after persistent pressure from several tennis players, including the British Andy Murray, the ATP asked an external agency to investigate the matter. Fifteen months later, the professional tennis association concluded that there was insufficient evidence to impose a disciplinary penalty on Zverev, who has always denied it.

Since then, despite his reputation, he has been free to play whenever and wherever he wants. On the ATP Tour there are hardly any rules regarding the behavior of players off the court, for example in the event of a criminal complaint. This is the case in other sports, such as the American football competition NFL. There, players must adhere to a code of conduct, including provisions on domestic violence. If there are indications that a player or coach may have misbehaved, a temporary suspension will follow and the NFL will conduct an investigation.

In other (team) sports, players are also held responsible for their behavior outside the sport; Recently, Manchester United decided to leave Brazilian Antony out of the squad after he was accused of domestic violence by his former girlfriend. The English club wanted to give space to the investigation into the case, which is still ongoing. Nevertheless, Antony is training again after a few weeks of absence.

In the Dutch Eredivisie something similar happened years ago to Ferne Snoyl, after he was arrested by the police in 2007 on suspicion of domestic violence. Snoyl was first suspended by his club NEC, and not long afterwards his contract was terminated – there were also other sporting incidents.

One-man businesses

It has not yet reached that point on the ATP Tour. Professional tennis players are one-man businesses. The ATP does have rules that prescribe that players involved in a lawsuit can be suspended, but in practice the association mainly intervenes when players misbehave during a match or, for example, doping.

Imposing a suspension also has major consequences: tennis players on the ATP Tour do not have a basic salary (as of next year), so if they do not play, they earn nothing. What also does not help is that the interests in tennis are fragmented due to the presence of seven organizations (in addition to the ATP, there are the WTA (for women), the global association ITF and the four Grand Slam organizations).

After Zverev was accused of domestic violence by Sharipova in 2020, the ATP announced that it wanted to introduce a ‘safeguarding policy’ to guarantee the safety of players. “This could also have an impact on public confidence in our sport,” the ATP wrote at the time. But new policies have not yet come into effect since then.

In the meantime, all the commotion seems to have little impact on Zverev’s game. That’s how it went three years ago, when he reached the final of the masters tournament in Paris despite all the negative attention. And now the German still has a chance to qualify for the semi-finals of the ATP Finals, although he must win his match against Rublev on Friday evening and hope that Alcaraz does not beat Medvedev earlier in the day.

If the German qualifies for the semi-finals, he will receive more than 1.1 million dollars in prize money. “I have never won the second group match and yet I have already won this tournament twice,” Zverev said on Wednesday after the loss to Medvedev at the press conference, where the developments in court were not discussed. “I therefore have good hope for a good outcome.”

Correction November 20, 2023: An earlier version of this article incorrectly described Andrei Rublev as German. Rublev is from Russia. This has been adjusted.

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