It was around the dinner table this week that the customary question arose of who everyone would like to see win the French Open. With no Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic left in the draw, the chance had arisen for someone to clinch their first Grand Slam.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see Matteo Berrettini, the former Wimbledon finalist, get his hands on it. Sadly, a dodgy left hip would let him down. Either of the two teenage prodigies, Joao Fonseca or Rafael Jodar, would have been great, too, had the latter not run out of legs and the former into a Czech brick wall.
As the voices around the table shared their views, it wasn’t long until a familiar sigh greeted the name of one of the last four standing. Not Zverev, anyone but Zverev.
If this were purely a sporting consideration, many would surely be gunning for Alexander Zverev to put his tag of tennis’ nearly man to bed once and for all. He is a three-time Grand Slam finalist, now an 11-time semi-finalist, and a man who led two finals and lost. He was two sets up against Dominic Thiem and lost a deciding tie-break to a man who could barely move. He was 2-1 up against Carlos Alcaraz at Roland Garros two years ago and coughed that one up too.
He has won 23 ATP Tour titles, including the year-end finals twice, and the Olympic gold, but never a Grand Slam. We all love an underdog story and a Zverev triumph would be a fair one. Around the grounds at Roland Garros, there have been plenty who want to see him do it too.
But when it comes to the 29-year-old German, it is never purely a sporting consideration. If he is to win at Roland Garros, he will go down as one of the most unpopular Grand Slam champions in history.
Alexander Zverev is the overwhelming favourite to win the men’s French Open title, but he would go down as one of the most unpopular Grand Slam champions in history
Zverev’s former girlfriends Olya Sharypova, left, and Brenda Patea, right, accused the tennis star of physical abuse
For so many, it is impossible to separate the tennis player from the man who was accused by former girlfriends Olya Sharypova and Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, of physical abuse.
In a 2020 interview with Ben Rothenberg for Racquet magazine, Sharypova claimed Zverev tried to smother her with a pillow until she could no longer breathe, prompting her to flee, barefoot, on to the streets of New York. At the Laver Cup in Geneva months later, she claimed he punched her in the face for the first time.
Sharypova did not pursue the claims, while the ATP took no action after an investigation. Zverev has always denied any wrongdoing, insisting her ‘unfounded allegations’ were ‘simply not true’.
In 2023, a Berlin court hit Zverev with a £390,000 fine and penalty order after accusations of abuse by Patea. Zverev contested it and faced a public hearing a year later, during which the prosecutor told the court that ‘after a heated argument’ Zverev allegedly pushed Patea against a wall and tried to strangle her with both hands.
Zverev repeatedly denied those allegations, too. Midway through the hearing, and during the French Open in 2024, the two settled out of court. Zverev paid a fine of £170,000, with three quarters of it going to the state and the rest to charity. The court said the decision was neither a verdict nor a decision about guilt.
‘I told you so from the start,’ Zverev said after going on to reach the French Open final.
Yet while the case may have been settled, the dust has not. The phrase ‘anyone but Zverev’ continues to trend on social media, as it did when he booked his place in the semi-finals to set up today’s clash against Jakub Mensik. ‘I know many people are still affected by these stories,’ Rothenberg, now of Bounces, told Daily Mail Sport. ‘So many tennis fans still feel alienated and dispirited by his continued prominence, pre-eminence and promotion by the sport.
‘I think there is a culture of silence that has developed by people who feel they are in the business of having to sell him and who feel they should treat him like anyone else on tour, when that’s not the reality.
Zverev was heckled by a protestor after losing the Australian Open final in 2025
A woman stood and bellowed: ‘Australia believes Olya and Brenda’ during the trophy presentation
‘It doesn’t change what happened if he wins it. But it will be a moment of celebration and exultation, and that will be painful for all the people who cannot easily move past these stories.’
There are those who refuse to let him forget it. Zverev asked for a fan to be removed at the Munich Open last year who shouted: ‘Let’s go, you wife beater!’
During the trophy presentation after his Australian Open final defeat last year, a woman stood and bellowed: ‘Australia believes Olya and Brenda!’
The ATP has finally introduced a safeguarding programme, which includes multiple references to domestic abuse.
Zverev took legal action against Rothenberg in a Berlin court after his interview with Sharypova.
Rothenberg crowd-funded to pay for his legal bills and raised more than $37,250 of his $22,000 target. Once the case is complete, the surplus will be donated to a domestic abuse charity.
Zverev marches into his semi-final as the monumental favourite. He has only dropped one set all tournament. No-one else left in the draw has ever got past a Grand Slam quarter-final. Right now, it feels as though it will be nobody but him.
