“Hopefully the next silverware he has are handcuffs”: Tennis fans dismayed at Alexander Zverev Rome coverage amid impending trial

A heavy feature even before Alexander Zverev‘s title run at the 2024 Rome Open was the heavy promotion from the social media account of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia Rome as it is also known who spent most of the week lauding the German much to the behest of tennis fans.

Zverev defeated Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 7-5 in the final at the Foro Italico and became a two-time Rome Open champion over the course of this past weekend. But he also has a bit of a cloud hanging over his head. He will soon go on trial accused of domestic abuse by his ex-girlfriend and mother to his child, Brenda Patea.

The German has kept winning despite all of this going on in his personal life and did so also when accused by his ex-girlfriend Olya Sharypova with the ATP finding no further action needed from an internal investigation. A bone of conjecture throughout the whole case has been that Zverev continues to play.

A point that makes some tennis fans uncomfortable until he is proved innocent or guilty and so any tournament deciding to laud him has been widely slammed. Laver Cup for instance when he was announced with Roger Federer copping a lot of flack and the lauding of the World No.4 was also not well received on social media. Some saying that hopefully his next silverware is in handcuffs.

“Can’t really be happy seeing someone accused by two women of domestic abuse lifting the trophy,” said one fan.

“Hopefully the next silverware he has in his hands are handcuffs. Clink Clink,” another wrote. “Next stop Court of Law! Or RG??,” another quipped.

With it being domestic abuse, the WTA has done its level best to avoid promoting Zverev and of course with him not being on their product it is fairly easy to do so. But they made an error on Tuesday afternoon of releasing a video round-up of Rome featuring him.

Swiftly deleted by their social media, it began with Zverev kneeling on the court after sealing the title in celebration before panning to Swiatek as they reshared the video released by the Rome X account. But it was up long enough for WTA to receive wide spread criticism for releasing such a video or even reposting it.

Ben Rothenberg, who has consistently pointed towards the case whenever Zverev has played and did so again during the final on Sunday called it a ‘weird stumble’ albeit the video did come direct from the Rome account so wasn’t made by the WTA. Still though it shows the direct anger that people are feeling at the situation.

Zverev will also likely be subject to constant questioning and criticism during Roland Garros. He will not attend the trial as he doesn’t need to and is playing in Paris. He will be one of the favourites. But aside from him omitting questions about it, journalists will likely spend the two weeks in Paris asking him more about the case than his matches. It will all come to a head eventually and Zverev for now is very much public enemy number one in some tennis fans’ conscious.