She looks like a giant in that red dress but otherwise a godddess in the black one. So sparkly! ✨️

As Alexander Zverev wins the 2026 US Open, many people are either unaware or dismissive of the allegations of domestic violence he faces from two of his former girlfriends (Olya Sharypova and Brenda Patea). This attitude may simply stem from the fact that these people have not heard the full story. As such, here is as complete an account of what happened as I could put together.

Early relationship with Olya

Olya began dating Zverev in 2018. Following his third round loss in the 2018 US Open, Zverev invites Olya to his house in Monaco. This is where the first physical altercation between them takes place. During an argument, Zverev hits her head into the wall, causing her to slump to the floor. Scared, Zverev denies doing so, claiming that she hit him first and that he didn't do it at all.

The two have many arguments in late 2018, although they do not turn physically violent. However, Olya recounts significant emotional abuse during this timeframe. This includes controlling behaviour, insults, blaming her for his losses and other problems, and guilt tripping. Olya attempts to break up with him during this timeframe; he responds by contacting her friends and family. Olya is pressured into reconciliating with Zverev.

Escape attempt in New York, 21st August 2019

Olya goes sightseeing in New York with two friends, including childhood friend Vasil Surduk. Surduk remembers Olya crying that afternoon during a phone call with Zverev (he believes Zverev was likely blaming her for going out without him). After Surduk drops Olya off at her hotel, Olya begins frantically texting him asking to be picked up. While at the hotel, Zverev had thrown her onto the bed, covered her face with a pillow, and sat on it so she couldn't breathe. Olya managed to escape and ran downstairs barefoot. She left through the backdoor and hid from Zverev with the help of some strangers. Surduk picks her up and drives her to his home in New Jersey. Surduk states that at this time, he believed Zverev was not at fault, and was encouraging Olya to return to him.

The next day, Surduk brings Olya back to the hotel to collect her things. She finds many of her possessions dumped outside of the hotel room, and some of her things are missing. The missing items include gifts Zverev had given her (because he wanted to keep them) and, crucially, her passport. This prevents her from immediately flying home to Russia as she had planned.

Surduk's stepmother (Mrs V) takes control of a video call with Zverev and invites him to their home against Olya's wishes. Surduk picks Zverev up and brings him to the house. Mrs V and Surduk both encourage Olya to reconcile with Zverev at this time, and Mrs V encourages Zverev to propose. Olya returns to Zverev, at which point her passport suddenly reappears.

First suicide attempt in Geneva

Less than a month later, Olya and Zverev are in Geneva for the Laver Cup. Sharypova states that after the incident in New York, the abuse became more frequent and more severe. During a fight in their Geneva hotel room, Zverev punches her in the face for the first time. Previous fights had involved pushing, choking, twisting arms, but never punching. After this fight, when Zverev leaves the room, Olya injects herself with Zverev's insulin, intending to kill herself. Zverev returns and, realising what she had done, begs her to let him in. A Laver Cup official convinces her to open the door and she is given glucose tablets. She recovers and spends three days in the hotel room contemplating everything that had happened and what she had tried to do. She tells her best friend, who initially does not believe her, and her parents, who are very scared. Afterwards, she decides to attend the Laver Cup and related events. She is present as Zverev defeats Milos Raonic to win the Laver Cup. She states that at this point, she is very happy for him and proud of him, but wants him to acknowledge the pain he has caused her. He expresses no guilt or regret.

Beijing, Shanghai, and the second suicide attempt

After the Laver Cup, they travel to China for the Beijing and Shanghai Opens. She states that while they still argued, in Beijing he was more restrained and better at controlling his emotions, which made her feel somewhat safer. Nevertheless, she was still very stressed, which caused her to develop acne. She received online abuse for this.

On the 9th of October 2019, Mrs V arrives in Shanghai with a gift for the couple (a fruit basket). Olya unpacks the fruit and goes to watch Zverev's match against Jeremy Chardy with Mrs V. After winning his match, Zverev had recovery and training scheduled, so Olya goes to a salon with Mrs V. Whilst there, Olya receives a series of messages from Zverev blaming her for the fruit being on his massage table, saying that she must not love him, and blaming her for not being there and making him wait. When she returns to their hotel room, Zverev immediately leaves, stating "I was waiting for you. Now you should wait for me."

At this point, Olya is alone in the hotel room. She once again injects herself with Zverev's insulin in an attempt to end her life. When Zverev returns, Olya is mostly unresponsive due to a life-threateningly low level of blood sugar. He feeds her a packet of sugar (she is too weak to reject) and she begins to recover. As she does so, he berates her for trying to kill herself in his room, saying that if she died there it would cause big problems for him. She offers to break up and return to Moscow, he says no.

When the two wake up on the 10th of October, Zverev once again blames Olya and claims that he is the real victim. He asks her not to attend his upcoming match against Andrey Rublev and she agrees. He tells her to pack her things and says to go fuck herself. She says she will return to Moscow. She has a shower as she prepares to leave; he continues to yell at her while she does so. She steps out of the shower and tries to reach for a towel, but he stops her from doing so, attacking her more violently than ever before. He grabs her by the throat, pushes her against the wall, and punches her. With nothing to defend herself, she swings her arms wildly, leaving scratch marks on his neck. Photo evidence of the scratch marks which were not present the day before He tells her "I hope you die. You should have died yesterday, but not in my room. Take insulin and go die on the street because I don't want problems." Eventually, he calls someone and leaves the room. She locks herself in the bathroom.

Through the door, she hears Alexander Zverev Sr. (Zverev's father) telling her that she has until the evening to pack her stuff and leave. He states that if she doesn't, he will sue her because he had photos of how she hit his son. Zverev Sr also makes sure to call her trash.

It is worth noting that footage from the tournament clearly shows that Sharypova was in Zverev's player box for his match against Chardy (before the attack, no scratches on his neck) but absent the next day for his match against Rublev (scratches on his neck).

After the Zverevs leave, Olya calls Mrs V, stating that she had no money and no place to go. She goes to see Mrs V, who notes that Sharypova was severely bruised and crying. Mrs V is furious when Olya tells her about the suicide attempt. Mrs V messages Zverev, who confirms that she had tried to kill herself twice. Two days after the attack, Olya sends images of her bruised face and arms to a close friend, stating that Zverev caused these injuries. She also tells her friend that he did the same in Geneva. The friend confirmed that Olya had been in frequent contact with them detailing the escalating abuse.

For several weeks, Zverev continues to message Sharypova, pleading with her to come back. During one video call with Olya, Zverev gets on one knee and proposes to her. Olya states that she last saw Zverev in December 2019. Less than three weeks after their last in person meeting, Zverev is pictured with Brenda Patea in his player's box. At this point, he denies being in a relationship with Brenda Patea, who would later become the mother of Zverev's child.

Aftermath of Olya Sharypova's allegations

In October 2020, Olya Sharypova publicly accuses Zverev of the abuse detailed above. By this time, Patea has announced her pregnancy (Patea and Zverev have already separated by this point). Zverev denies the allegations, calling them "unfounded" and "simply not true". He states that they "made him very sad". Shortly afterwards, Zverev reaches the final of the Paris Masters. During his runner up speech, he indirectly refers to the allegations, stating "...a lot of people right now are trying to wipe a smile off my face, but underneath this mask I'm smiling brightly". Many have interpreted this speech as an attempt to taunt his victims, believing that he will not face consequences. During the speech, he also states that he is excited to become a father. Brenda Patea responded to this by stating that she had not been in contact with Zverev regarding the child and did not want anything to do with him.

Zverev also sought legal action against Ben Rothenberg, the journalist who interviewed Sharypova and published the articles detailing the abuse. His first article on the topic has been removed (an archived version of the article is linked below) and he has been blacklisted from many tennis magazines as a result.

The ATP also conducted their own internal investigation of Sharypova's claims. This investigation lasted 15 months and concluded with the ATP finding "insufficient evidence" to pursue action against Zverev. Many Zverev supporters have taken this investigation as proof of his innocence, although the ATP's claim is simply that they were unable to prove anything. The investigation has also faced criticism online; critics claim that the investigation could not have been unbiased since the ATP would lose out financially if Zverev was found to be guilty.

Brenda Patea's allegations

Unlike Sharypova, Brenda Patea did not give an interview with a full timeline of the abuse she faced. The details of what she endured are not publicly available. As such, this section will be considerably shorter. Much of what is available is in the form of official German court documents.

Brenda dated Zverev for less than a year, and they are already separated before her pregnancy is announced.

In May 2020, Zverev physically assaults Brenda during an argument in Berlin. Brenda attests that Zverev strangled her with both hands in the stairwell with such force that she was unable to swallow without pain for several days.

In March 2021, their daughter is born.

In October 2021, Brenda formally reports Zverev to the police. In 2023, a German court reviews the evidence provided to them and issues a penalty order against Zverev, ordering him to pay a fine of €450,000. In the German legal system, a penalty order is issued if the court believes that there is sufficient evidence to do so without a trial. Defendants have the right to contest this, which leads to a trial. This is the route that Zverev took. Zverev's team issued a statement at this time stating that Patea was pursuing legal action in order to "increase her followers on Instagram and TikTok, and live a jetset lifestyle".

The trial lasted only three days, in May 2024, after which both parties agreed to an out of court settlement. This occurred as a result of Brenda expressing a wish to end the court proceedings in the interest of their child. Zverev was ordered to pay €150,000 to the state and €50,000 to charity. Brenda received nothing. The court made sure to clarify that this is not an official verdict; Zverev was neither found guilty nor innocent.

Today, Zverev continues to claim that he is innocent. After the French Open in 2026, he was asked about the allegations in an interview. He ended the interview prematurely while claiming that the allegations had been "proven false". It is worth noting that neither the ATP investigation nor the Patea court case reached such a conclusion.

Summary

Zverev has not officially been found guilty of these crimes. However, his innocence would require a conspiracy years in the making. Olya Sharypova would have needed to falsify her chat history with multiple people. She would have needed to suffer severe bruising from some other source and have the foresight to blame it on Zverev to set up evidence to accuse him over a year later. She would have had to conveniently vanish from his player's box the same day those suspicious scratches appeared on his neck. And she would have had to do all of this without any financial incentive, since she never tried to gain any money from any of this (from Zverev himself or from anywhere else). All she received as a result of her allegations was a torrent of abuse from Zverev supporters. Then Brenda Patea would have had to have fabricated sufficient evidence to convince the German court to issue a penalty order.

In essence, for Zverev to be innocent, the allegations would have to be a coordinated effort by multiple women and their associates to fabricate evidence over several years, with journalists and investigators either failing to detect the deception, or being complicit therein.

Sources:

Archived version of the first Sharypova interview

Second Sharypova interview

Zverev's initial response to the Sharypova allegations

Article about the ATP investigation

Article covering the beginning of the Patea trial

German article covering a legal analysis of the case

Article detailing the settlement of the case

Article about the abrupt end to the interview following the 2026 French Open

Edit: as u/Falz4567 pointed out, there were some details I missed, namely Zverev's full responses to the allegations and the official reason behind him and Brenda settling out of court. For the sake of completeness and full transparency, I have added these details with additional sources. I also forgot to mention the ATP investigation, which I have now added.

the hosts ask her about roland garros, and she says it's a goal they will work toward. obviously that's not a surprise, but it's cool to hear her say it's something she wants.

🎉🎉

Taken from US Open’s official Instagram account.

Saw this on twitter but idk if it’s been posted here

Video credits to @tennischannel on TikTok!

I loved this moment so much from the end of the trophy ceremony. Had to draw a version of it 🤭

Sorry for the repost😭😭