By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, June 1, 2024
Alexander Zverev is engaged in a couple of major court proceedings
While two-time Rome champion Zverev plays for a fourth trip to the Roland Garros semifinals in Paris, his appeal of domestic abuse penalty order began in a Berlin court on Friday.
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It raises the question: Should players be eligible to compete for Grand Slam titles while facing domestic abuse or other court cases?
Asked his view of the situation at Roland Garros, former world No. 1 Andy Murray said the ATP must “make a decision” and set a clear-cut policy when it comes to players competing in tournaments while contesting legal court cases.
Rather than players offer their viewpoints in post-match pressers, Murray said “it’s for the governing body to make that decision.”
“Clearly it’s a difficult one. You know, the players shouldn’t be the ones that are coming in here making comment on it,” Murray told the media in Paris. “It’s the ATP who should make the decision and make the, you know, the policy for what that would look like.”
When it comes to creating and communicating policy in these types of cases, Murray questioned the ATP’s performance.
“I don’t think they did a particularly good job over the last few years with, I don’t know what the word is in terms of, you know, in these situations when you might ask me about that in press,” Murra said. “Like, it’s not for us to come up with what those policies are. It’s for the governing body to make that decision.”
A Berlin court issued a $475,000 penalty order against Zverev last October over abuse allegations that he caused bodily harm to his former girlfriend.
The attorney for Brenda Patea, Zverev’s ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, told publication RTL a German prosecutor was seeking a penalty order against Zverev on the abuse charge.
The abuse allegations say Zverev damaged the health of a woman during an argument the couple had in May of 2020 in Berlin.
“The defendant, a well-known German professional athlete, must answer for the accusation of intentional bodily harm,” the court said in a statement on the case. “In May 2020, he is said to have briefly choked his then partner’s neck with both hands in the stairwell of a Berlin apartment building during an argument. The alleged victim is said to have suffered shortness of breath and considerable pain.”
Zverev, who is not required to appear personally in the Berlin court, adamantly denies all abuse accusations.
“I do know what I did, I do know what I didn’t do. That’s, at the end of the day, what’s going to come out, and I have to trust in that,” Zverev told the media at Roland Garros.
A penalty order shows “that the public prosecutor’s office sees sufficient suspicion [for the allegation],” RTL reports. The amount of the penalty order is determined by both the severity of the crime and the income of the alleged abuser in the case.
Two-time Olympic gold-medal champion Murray called on the ATP to set a policy in this case and other domestic abuse cases that may arise in the future.
“Yeah, clearly it’s a very difficult subject, but it’s for you guys to obviously report on that, and we’ll see what happens with the trial,” Murray said. “And then, I guess, a decision will be made after that.”
Photo credit: Corleve/Mark Peterson
