By Erik Gudris | Friday, August 27, 2021
Olympic gold-medal champion Alexander Zverev seeks legal recourse over published article accusing him of abusing his former partner.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Current World No. 4 Alexander Zverev is now taking legal action after he again denied domestic abuse allegations from a former partner featured in a newly published article.
Olga Sharypova, Zverev’s former girlfriend and a former junior player, gave an extensive interview to Slate.com published this week. The interview included extensive details from Sharypova on physical and verbal abuse she claims she suffered from Zverev.
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The 23-year-old Sharypova first made the claims in a now deleted Instagram post last October. She later revealed her abuser as Zverev to a Russian sports website Championat.
Sharypova said she endured mental and physical abuse throughout several years of their relationship, including an allegation that Zverev tried to strangle her with a pillow in a hotel during the 2019 US Open.
With the publication of the new article, Zverev announced on social media he was pursuing legal action both in Germany and the United States.
The 24-year-old Zverev has repeatedly denied his former partner’s claims. Asked about the allegations in his pre-US Open press conference today, Zverev again adamantly denied committing any abuse.
"I've always said that the allegations and everything that has been said is untrue," Zverev said today. "The court confirmed that. So there's nothing else to say from my side because, as I said, the court confirmed that it's untrue. There's nothing more I can say towards that."
Yet the allegations have cast a negative light on the German this summer, including while he won the Olympic gold medal in men’s singles in Tokyo and the recent Cincinnati tournament.
Several sponsors and business partners have split ties with Zverev as well in the last few months, though no reference to the allegations was given as the cause for the end of those partnerships.
Slate.com posted on social media that they are standing by the article and are aware of the legal action Zverev is undertaking.
The fourth-seeded Zverev is riding an 11-match winning streak into the US Open winning successive titles at the Tokyo Olympic Games and Cincinnati. Zverev is scheduled to face former Wimbledon semifinalist Sam Querrey in the US Open first round on Monday.