Alexander Zverev was made to toil hard for his second-round win at the 2024 Australian Open, with qualifier Lukas Klein taking him to five sets before the German booked his spot in the next stage.
Zverev had to come back from a 1-2 deficit on Thursday (January 18), finally prevailing 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(7) in a battle that lasted four hours and 31 minutes on John Cain Arena.
At his press conference, however, it was Alexander Zverev’s impending domestic abuse trial that was brought up, making the World No. 6 snap. For those unaware, he is scheduled to appear in the Berlin criminal court in May this year to contest the allegations of domestic violence levied on him by ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea.
Zverev was asked about the same at his press conference after the first-round win at Melbourne Park as well, where he responded with curt answers and slammed some journalists for trying to make a story out of the matter.
On Thursday, the former World No. 2 was even more curt, stating that he did not want his domestic abuse to be the first topic of discussion after he won a marathon encounter. The question put to him was whether he would be attending the trial in person, a query he did not answer directly.
“Wow. That’s a question. I just played four hours, 40 minutes. That’s not the first question I really want to hear, to be honest. I’ve got no idea. It’s in May,” Zverev said.
It was the only question he faced about the trial in the press conference, as the English portion of his interaction with the media was cut short after that.
“There are journalists who follow the truth and there are journalists who want to sell a story” – Alexander Zverev
Zverev in action at the 2024 Australian Open
Speaking to German media following his first-round win at the Australian Open, Alexander Zverev placed the blame on the media for sensationalizing his upcoming trial, stating that some journalists were more interested in selling a story than the truth.
“There are journalists who follow the truth, like hopefully most of you, and who are also fair to the player, and there are journalists who want to sell a story. And selling the story is more important to them than selling the truth. And I’m assuming that there’s someone sitting here now who is exactly like that,” Zverev said.
The World No. 6 also made a reference to his previous domestic abuse allegations (levied by ex-girlfriend Olga Sharypova), where he had been given a clean chit by the ATP later following an investigation.
“If that’s what he wants to do, that’s fine. They did the same thing a few years ago. We all know what the result was. Then suddenly everyone was very, very quiet, very, very quick. And now these two or three are coming up again and we all know their names,” he added.
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