"It’s an intentional slap in the face for the ATP" - Tennis journalist on Alexander Zverev being allowed to play amid abuse allegations
Olga Sharypova had in her interview with tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg accused ex-boyfriend Alexander Zverev of subjecting her to physical and emotional abuse during the course of his relationship.
Rothenberg has since stood firm in his demand for Zverev's suspension from the ATP Tour until the case is settled in a court of law.
It is against this backdrop that the journalist took offence at Zverev featuring prominently in ATP's promotional material for the season-ending championships. Dubbing it as a "slap in the face" for the ATP, he again batted for disallowing Zverev from competiting on the Tour.
Rothenberg attached an explainer on the issue penned by fellow tennis observer Jon Wertheim, who he said had summed up the issue well.
"Honestly, at this point it’s an intentional slap in the face for the ATP to keep doing this above-and-beyond promotion when so many justifiably don’t even think Zverev should be allowed to play right now given his legal status," he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
"I thought @jon_wertheim articulated his stance on why Zverev shouldn't be playing (and addressed the Kyrgios comparison) very well in his mailbag today," he wrote in another post.
Rothenberg said Zverev was still in the running for the ATP Finals crown despite being slapped with a €450,000 fine in a domestic assault case.
"Zverev is still in the running to win the ATP's most prestigious title this week, even after a Berlin court penalized him €450,000 for a domestic assault incident. He's appealing, but while that appeal is pending, he should be benched from tennis. Simple," he wrote.
Notably, a Berlin court had ordered Alexander Zverev to pay the fine for physically abusing ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea, with whom he has a son. The German's lawyers had at the time said that he would contest the court order.
"Alexander Zverev playing on puts conscientious fans in an awful position" - Tennis journalist
Ben Rothberg went on to say that Alexander Zverev continuing to play on the Tour puts "conscientious" fans and ticket-holders in an "awful" position.
The journalist stressed that the situation would not have been this dire had Zverev been playing in the lower rung.
"Zverev playing on puts conscientious fans and ticketholders in an awful position, If Zverev was ~#100, this would be just as negligent by ATP (though I have to think if he were #100, he'd be out), but to have this moral rot fanned at the top of the sport is deeply malodorous," he added.
Alexander Zverev is currently competiting at the 2023 ATP Finals. He opened his campaign on a strong note, beating Carlos Alcaraz in his first round-robin match.