"Not good when a player facing charges is promoted" - Iga Swiatek on Alexander Zverev awaiting criminal trial for alleged domestic abuse
Iga Swiatek was recently asked about Alexander Zverev awaiting trial in Berlin's criminal court for the domestic abuse allegations levied on him by ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea.
This is the second case of domestic assault involving Zverev; he was previously accused of the same by another ex-partner Olga Sharypova. The ATP, however, investigated the first case and did not find sufficient evidence, leading to Zverev being given a clean chit by the organization last year.
Patea's allegations went public shortly after that, with reports of Zverev being ordered to pay a fine of nearly half a million euros by the Berlin prosecutor's office. Now, the World No. 6 is set to appear in court in May, as recently revealed by sources in Germany.
In the meantime, the ATP has seemingly turned a blind eye to the case and has even appointed Zverev to the Players' Council for the 2024 season. The move was criticized heavily by fans at the time, yet no word has come from the men's tennis body about whether the decision is being looked into.
At her press conference after her 7-6(2), 6-2 opening-round win over Sofia Kenin, Swiatek was asked to share her thoughts on the matter. The World No. 1 responded that it was not good to "promote" a player with domestic abuse allegations to his name.
Swiatek, however, put the onus on the ATP to decide what the right thing was to do in these circumstances. She said it was hard for her to comment on the matter any further without knowing more details.
"Well, any answer that I give, I mean, there's no good answer to that. I think it's up to ATP what they decide. For sure it's not good when a player who's facing charges like that is kind of being promoted," Iga Swiatek said.
"I don't know what the result of the investigation or the case is going to be. I'm also not sure what's the history in terms of the other cases that he had. I don't know if he won or lost. I guess you have to ask ATP what they want to do with that 'cause I'm not in the right position to judge," she added.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Cameron Norrie also faced questions about Alexander Zverev's criminal trial
Alexander Zverev's male colleagues have also been facing questions about his impending criminal trial during the 2024 Australian Open. Cameron Norrie and Stefanos Tsitsipas were both asked about it after their first-round wins on Monday.
Norries refused to comment, saying he did not know much about what happened, while Tsitsipas expressed a similar sentiment.
"Honestly, I don't know too much about that. I can't comment at all, unfortunately. But, yeah. Honestly, I don't really know too much about that and what happened, so tough to comment," Norrie said.
"I will not say on that. I don't know the situation. I'm completely unfamiliar with it. I have nothing to comment on it," Tsitsipas said.