Alexander Zverev won two Grand Slams. Why do tennis fans still dislike him?

Alexander Zverev now has two Grand Slam trophies in a single calendar year beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 in Sunday’s US Open final. Throw in the 2026 French Open crown and a runner-up finish at Wimbledon and you have a season that ranks among the best in sports this decade in sheer numbers. He finished his major campaigns 25-2, which is only a handful of men in the Open Era. None of this will make him popular. He might not even like it.

This paradox was on display in New York for a fortnight. During the final itself, Hall of Fame announcer Mary Carillo used the World Feed commentary, the one broadcast to the audience’s headphones at Arthur Ashe Stadium, to highlight the domestic abuse allegations that have dogged Zverev since 2020. It’s unusual to do in the middle of a final, and it immediately divides opinion. Tennis presenter Marcus Buckland suggested that people should put the matter to rest as it had already been legally settled and was immediately taken down online for it.

Zverev himself, asked afterward about playing in a hostile arena, offered a line that told its own story: “It was an incredible atmosphere to play in, even though the crowd was against me. You brought the energy and the noise.” Screengrab by X

The champion, by his own admission, plays for a crowd that wants him to lose. That’s not a common sensation in sports, and it’s worth asking why rather than fading away over time, he attached himself so firmly to Zverevas most scandals eventually do.

Here’s what the allegations actually are.

In 2020, Olya Sharypova, herself a former partner and junior player, said Zverev subjected her to repeated physical and psychological abuse, including an incident in a New York hotel room before the 2019 US Open where she said he tried to suffocate her with a pillow. She never filed a criminal complaint. The ATP did not open a formal investigation until late 2021, after a delay that itself drew criticism, ultimately finding insufficient evidence to substantiate the claims. Then, in 2023, Brenda Patea, the mother of Zverev’s daughter, brought her own domestic violence case to the German courts. It was headed for trial before both parties settled out of court in June 2024Zverev will pay a €200,000 fine to the state, not Pate, without a formal admission of wrongdoing.

Two separate women, years apart, tell essentially similar stories, and neither case is convicted.

“AS BIG AS ABUSE ALLEGATIONS”

This is precisely the gap in which public opinion has camped.

For Zverev’s defense attorneys, the ATP’s finding of insufficient evidence and civil settlement without an admission of guilt is exactly what the presumption of innocence is supposed to protect, and repeating it at every trophy presentation is simply unfair. To his critics, insufficient evidence is not the same as innocence, a settlement is not an acquittal, and the very fact that the two charges exist independently of each other is itself a story that still won’t go away.

On the morning after the final, one X post about the bikes described Zverev as a man with “as many domestic violence charges as you have slams” and suggested that would always be his legacy.

It’s a brutal line and unfair in a strict legal sense given that not a single case resulted in a conviction, but its circulation says something about how little good name is left in the bank to draw upon.

“Be healthy, Carlos and Jannik.”

That was John McEnroe’s parting shot as the ESPN broadcast neared its signing, the trophy was already raised and the confetti already settled, and it had nothing to do with Carillo’s remarks.

Without prompting, with the timing of a man who can’t resist getting the last word, he named two players who weren’t even in the building, as if Zverev’s own trophy was merely an undercard for the fight yet to come.

ZVEREV DID NOT HELP HIS THINGS

Zverev didn’t help his own cause much. His standard response over five years of questioningwas a kind of version of denial followed by an insistence that the subject be closed, delivered with the expression of a person exasperated at having to repeat himself. When Ben Rothenberg, the journalist who first detailed Sharyp’s allegations, published texts and photos supporting her deposition, Zverev sued him for defamation rather than addressing the substance. None of this is proof of anything in itself, but it shaped the public mood because evasiveness reads differently to an audience than a full, detailed rebuttal would.

Then there’s the litigious Zverev, who has offered skeptics his own supporting evidence, if not specific allegations. In February 2022, after losing the doubles in Acapulco, he walked to the referee’s chair and repeatedly struck with his racket, he got so close to official Alessandro Germani that the referee pulled his feet back in alarm.

Andy Murray called it “dangerous and reckless”. The ATP fined him, forfeited his prize money and ranking points from the event and handed him a conditional eight-week ban with a one-year probationary period. Zverev apologized as is his wont and moved on as he should. It’s a different order of insult than Sharypov and Pate claimed, but it lives in the same ensemble in the public imagination: the image of a man whose temper, when it goes, goes further than most.

STILL THIRD BEST

Reuters photo

This competitive complaint has its meaning. Zverev remains the third-best player by most honest calculations right now, some distance behind Alcaraz and Sinner. Novak Djokovic, 39, has not won a major since the 2023 US Open and suffered the earliest exit of his career this fortnight. beat Mariano Navone in five sets in the first round, a result that revived questions about how much longer he intended to play.

Zverev took full advantage of that vacuum and it’s no shame, tennis has always rewarded the healthy. But that means this year’s catch carries a faint asterisk of circumstance and also feeds a wider hesitancy between brands. Zverev has the build, backhand and waist of one of the traditional tennis skills that can be sold as easily as Alcaraz or Sinner. Still, the sponsors kept a visible distance, careful not to attach themselves to the name that still evokes Mary Carillo sidelined midway through the finals. Two grand slams in a season weren’t enough to change that calculation, and it’s not clear what would be.

None of this will cost him any more Grand Slams. He’s 29, playing the best tennis of his career, and this game rewards backhands and second serves more than public approval. But sport has always been sold not only for results. He sells a narrative and sells the fantasy of a deserving champion, and Zverev is an awkward fit for that narrative no matter how many trophies he accumulates. The ATP has cleared him to compete.

Zverev cannot control which side tennis fans will take. What he can control is tennis. In 2026, it was enough to win Roland Garros and the US Open.

The trophies will remain in his cabinet. The debate around him will also remain.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

14 Sep 2026 18:32 IST