Tennis has failed to provide an environment and culture that allows alleged victims to feel comfortable reporting abuse
In hindsight the silence that accompanied the first allegations of domestic abuse against Alexander Zverev turned out to be the most proactive action tennis took for nearly 10 months. During the first week of the Paris Masters last November, to much criticism, the official tennis social media accounts barely covered Zverev’s run to the final there. As time passed, normalcy predictably resumed. Zverev, one of the most promising young tennis players, has continued to grow as a player and over the past month he has won an Olympic gold medal. All other issues were pushed to the side.
But that has been disrupted again as Olga Sharypova, his ex-girlfriend, has spoken further about abuse she says she experienced in a comprehensive interview in the US publication Slate. Last November, in a lengthy interview in Racquet magazine, Sharypova alleged Zverev would punch and choke her during their relationship, leading eventually to her attempting suicide by injecting herself with insulin in Geneva during the 2019 Laver Cup.
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