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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

Sport has struggled with how to deal with athletes’ domestic violence allegations for years.

It’s an issue that’s playing out in front of viewers across the world right now, who are tuning into the Australian Open.

A star of the tennis tour, Alexander Zverev, is playing while facing domestic violence charges and a looming trial in Germany.

How these charges are acknowledged - or not - by the tennis community is now the subject of debate.

Today, author and contributor to The Saturday Paper Ben Rothenberg, on the culture of silence around allegations of domestic violence in tennis.

It’s Friday January 19.

And a warning, this episode contains descriptions of domestic violence, and discussion of suicide.

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ANGE:

Ben, the Australian Open is in full swing. There's always some interesting moments that come out of the players' press conferences that happen during the tournament. But one of them this week with Alexander Zverev, really stood out. What happened?

BEN:

So Alexander Zverev, who's the number six seeded player in the men's singles draw at the 2024 Australian Open, played his first round match against another German, Dominik Koepfer, and won in four sets.

Audio excerpt:

“Zverev winning the match against Koepfer.”

BEN:

He goes to his post-match press conference, which is also part of the average post-match routine of a tennis player. He sits down and there is only one English-speaking journalist in the room who's asking questions, a guy from the Sydney Morning Herald, and he asks Zverev about a topic he has not been asked about very often.

Audio excerpt - SMH Journalist:

“Can I ask about the trial in Germany? Do you think it's appropriate to continue on the ATP Players Council while that case is underway?”

Audio excerpt - Zverev:

“Why would it not be?”

BEN:

Zverev was asked about his new election to the ATP Player Council, which is… sort of an advisory group of players. And he was elected to be one of the players from the top 50. And he was asked if he thought it was appropriate to continue serving in that role because of his upcoming trial date for domestic violence charges that were filed against him in Berlin by one of his ex-girlfriends, Brenda Patea, who is the mother of his child.

Audio excerpt - SMH Journalist:

“There's obviously a question mark about your judgement, that the court will decide. You don’t think… so, you have the confidence of your fellow players to continue in that role?”

Audio excerpt - Zverev:

“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think so. Nobody has said anything to me so I don't have a reason not to believe that.”

BEN:

The ex-girlfriend who filed the charges in Berlin is the second of two long time partners of hers who has accused Zverev of various acts of domestic violence during their relationships, and Zverev has continued on playing, he keeps going. So I think being, sort of, asked about this to his face was jarring for him.

ANGE:

And we should say Ben, that findings have not been made against Zverev in either case. The earlier case was investigated by the ATP and the evidence was inconclusive. But to step back a bit. For people that aren’t deep in the tennis world, can you explain who Alexander Zverev is?

BEN:

Alexander Zverev was someone who was groomed as being one of the next big stars in men's tennis for years, ever since he was a teenager. Kind of coming up after this, what they call, the golden generation of Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the three huge champions who all won 20 or more Grand Slams. Zverev was one of the ones in the next generation who was really seen as being a prodigy, as being a wunderkind for a big tennis country in Germany, which has a tradition of big tennis stars like Boris Becker and Steffi Graf. Zverev was supposed to be the next anointed one, really. And Roger Federer actually signed him to his management company. So he really has been one of the players knocking on the door and someone of whom a lot was expected and hoped. But at the same time, a lot of people who are more casual tennis fans who aren't, you know, reading articles on Twitter or whatever else it may be when these things pop up, would have no idea, would just see him still as the sort of unblemished star of the sport.

ANGE:

And what are the allegations that Alexander Zverev is facing, specifically? How serious are they?

BEN:

So the current round of allegations from his more recent ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea, she accuses him of assault. According to an interview published by SZ, which is a German newspaper, Patea says that one night in May 2020, in an Airbnb apartment in Berlin, Zverev is said to have pushed against the wall and choked her during an argument. She then had pain in the throat and neck area, and difficulty swallowing. Zverev has denied all of this, and he was issued what's called a penalty order by the German courts, where he was assessed a fine of, I think, €450,000, which is about 700,000 AUD, and basically said, you can pay this because we think there's a strong case and enough evidence to convict you here, or you can appeal it. And he's chosen to appeal this. And so that means there's a court date coming up for him in May.

ANGE:

So Zverev has denied the allegations. But being such a high profile player at a tournament like the Australian Open, inevitably other players are aware of these accusations and it's now coming up for them as well. I'm sure players want to focus on playing tennis, essentially, but these are really serious allegations that can't really be ignored. How is the community around Zverev and other players reacting to what's going on?

BEN:

I think most players are at least aware of the basic facts of it. But at the same time, this is still someone who they are coexisting with on tour, who they share a locker room with on tour, they travel with on tour, who they compete against on tour. And so this week at the Australian Open, when players started getting asked more about Zverev, which hadn't happened in a while, they were surprised, I think, first of all, and caught off guard to be asked about it, because it really has been a real culture of silence in the sport around Zverev and these accusations, and they didn't have much to say.

Audio excerpt - SMH Journalist:

“Is it appropriate for him to continue serving on the players council, and I know he was just elected, while that matter is unresolved?”

Audio excerpt - Dimitrov:

“First thing I hear this. I definitely won't comment more on that, because I don't know what the situation is.”

BEN:

Iga Świątek, who is the number one ranked women's player, who actually played Zverev in a mixed doubles match at the final of the United Cup a couple weeks ago in Sydney, she was asked about it as well, and she paused for a long time before answering. And she said she thought it wasn't appropriate to be promoting someone who's facing these charges. Which is basic, but it's more than a lot of players have said in a long time.

Audio excerpt - Świątek:

“I think it's up to… it will be what they decide. For sure it's not good when a player who's facing charges like that is kind of being, you know, promoted. But I don't know what the result of the investigation or the case is going to be.”

ANGE:

Can you explain the significance of Alexander Zverev being elected to the ATP Council, and is it kind of a symbolic role, or does it actually come with a level of responsibility?

BEN:

There is a role of responsibility. They do have meetings. And one of the major policy things in the ATP, that has not been resolved yet, is a domestic violence policy.

This is something that the ATP first started discussing after the first round of Zverev allegations. They started in 2021, saying they would sort of form a committee to think about a safeguarding policy, as they called it, which would include a domestic violence policy.

Tennis has not had a domestic violence policy, which has caused a lot of problems in this case. There's no real precedent or framework for how to deal with this, and that's way behind a lot of other sports leagues, sports, particularly in both Australia and the United States, which when a player is facing accusations like this, they are often suspended from the league. They’re taken off the field, off the court, whatever it may be.

And so now Zverev is in the situation where he might be asked to weigh in and consider and legislate on a domestic violence policy, about whom he might be one of the first and primary subjects of how those rules would be applied. So that's pretty, pretty shocking conflict of interest. Even for tennis, which is full of conflicts of interest.

ANGE:

After the break, why tennis struggles to deal with allegations of domestic abuse.

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ANGE:

Ben, you've been covering the tennis tour for a long time now, and years ago, you wrote a story about Alexander Zverev which included domestic violence allegations from a different ex-girlfriend of his. How did that story come to your attention?

BEN:

Yeah so Olga Sharapova, who goes by Olia, is their nickname, dated Zverev for a few years, and then about a year after they broke up in October 2020, she made a post on Instagram in Russian. She said, I have been a victim of domestic violence and I will not be silenced, was how it started. And then it gave some details that were, sort of, more poetically phrased in describing some things that had happened to her, an incident in New York. She said that they had gotten in their most recent fight, and Zverev had tried to smother her with a pillow basically over… on a bed and was she was running from the hotel room, basically barefoot into the streets. And as much as she'd wanted to leave, Zverev had her passport, she said. And the story of the first time also included an incident that happened at the Labour Cup event in Geneva in Switzerland, when Olia said she was punched in the face by Zverev, and that she had attempted suicide after that. After her initial Instagram statement, he said it was simply not true, was the language he used. A couple weeks later told the second part of the story, which involved mostly a tournament that happened in Shanghai. Another fight, another assault that Olia said happened, Zverev again denied, another suicide attempt. And after that story, the ATP announced they're doing an investigation into this and also coming up with this domestic violence policy. And the investigation the ATP commissioned, ultimately, was inconclusive. They said they neither confirm nor refuted what Olia Sharapova said had happened in these various hotels, but that they had, quote, insufficient evidence.

ANGE:

And so the ATP announces that they're going to look into, or start establishing, a domestic violence policy. That was a few years ago. Where is that all up to now?

BEN:

They hired someone to be a director of safeguarding for their tour. But there is no policy as of yet. There hasn't been a lot of transparency. And obviously it's complicated. I mean, there are certainly leagues in Australia and others have domestic violence policies for their athletes. And in the US as well, big leagues at the NFL and NBA have these policies. And ATP is trickier because… a few things. It is an international sport, so it's going in and out of all these various different legal jurisdictions, and lots of which have very different laws about these sorts of things. And so it's a very nomadic sport that can make it hard to pin down. And also the players are not employed in the same way as they are in a league. They're not salaried employees by a given club or team. They are independent contractors, technically. And so what sort of things can be applied to them in, sort of, legalese, are a bit different. And that has been delays the ATP have cited sometimes in the complications to this. And also there doesn't seem to be much will to fast track this. I think there's been a desire to brush this under the rug and hope this goes away. And I think this court case has made that impossible. As well as the pressure from Sydney Morning Herald journalists in this Australian Open.

ANGE:

And Ben when we talk about sport and allegations of sexual assault or domestic violence, some fans make this argument that we should separate the coverage of players on court versus off court life, right? What do you think broadly of that idea or argument? Why do you think there's this desire from some sections of society to stick to sport, quote unquote?

BEN:

I think because people are uncomfortable with these issues and also want sports to be their safe space, their sort of sanctuary away from the real world. And it's an escape for lots of fans who want to tune in and not worry about their life or their problems or anything going on in the world. And so when they see politics or activism being in sports, whether that's, you know, a player wearing, you know, a blue and yellow ribbon for Ukraine on her cap, like number one Iga Świątek has done for years, in solidarity with Ukraine. Or its political statements, which are made by players like Naomi Osaka, let's say, wearing the names of Black Lives Matter victims on court at the U.S. open a few years ago. Some people will just find that distasteful and really want to see sports as a siloed, isolated thing from the world. But that's…that's a fantasy. That's not real.

ANGE:

And if change is needed in this space, where do you think it's most needed to come from? Is it the media or fans or fellow players or… what do you think?

BEN:

I think it's from media to continue to foreground this. You know, the story basically is Zverev got asked about this. The story is that other players were asked about this, and it has not been something that a lot of my colleagues in the media have really taken up as a story, in many years. I've been… oftentimes felt very alone for the first couple of years, especially, of trying to tell the story and feel like the story was important and worth fighting for and worth, you know, all the difficulty that goes into these kinds of stories and, you know, dealing with lawyers and vetting things and fact checking… all the sorts of stuff that goes into this kind of, subject matter, which is much tougher fair than the average sports writing...

ANGE:

Match commentary.

BEN:

Yeah, and things that honestly, a lot of sports writers are not equipped to do in terms of what they can do in terms of their reporting and what they feel comfortable doing.

And then also, I think the ATP has a responsibility to care about this as well, to be responsive to their fans and to understand that so many people find this inclusion of Zverev distasteful. And actually the Australian Open in a notable development on their Twitter account during his first match, which was part of Margaret Court Arena, one of the big stadiums at the Australian Open, they didn't mention him once. They did not give any updates on its match, did not post the results. And it was a four set match, there are some dramatic moments, I'm sure there were highlights and things like that, but at least on that main account, they stayed silent on Zverev. And whether that's a thing to avoid blowback solely and they think any time they mention him, it might just draw people to say, why are you celebrating this guy? Or they think it's a genuine, in poor taste thing to do… whatever it was, it was a notable silence and we haven't seen much of that. We saw that the very first week that the first accusations came out, in October 2020. There was a Paris indoors tournament he was playing, and they were very silent on Zverev throughout, very consciously. But since then, it's been business as usual. So, maybe people are finally realising the business of Alexander Zverev in tennis is not usual.

ANGE:

Ben, thanks so much for your time.

BEN:

Thanks Ange.

ANGE:

And if you or someone you know needs help with domestic violence, support is available on 1800 RESPECT.

If you need support for your mental health, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today…

Donald Trump was threatened with expulsion from the courtroom during his Manhattan civil trial, after he repeatedly ignored warnings to keep quiet during the testimony of writer E. Jean Carroll.

Carroll is suing Trump for damages over comments he made as president in 2019, where he denied Carroll’s rape claim against him.

Trump’s outbursts came as Carroll was giving testimony about threats of death and rape she had received.

And,

A shipment of medicine has arrived in Gaza, as part of the first agreement between Israel and Hamas since a weeklong ceasefire in November.

The deal could bring much needed relief to some of the roughly 100 hostages being held by Hamas, as well as to Palestinians in Gaza in need of aid.

7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper.

It’s produced by Kara Jensen-Mackinnon, Zoltan Fecso and Cheyne Anderson.

Our senior producer is Chris Dengate. Our technical producer is Atticus Bastow.

Our editor is Scott Mitchell. Sarah McVeigh is our head of audio.

Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.

Mixing by Andy Elston, Travis Evans, and Atticus Bastow.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again next week.

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