Alexander Zverev’s assault appeal hearing has started on Friday in Berlin but the opening day went without the German tennis star in court after he was not ordered to personally appear in front of the judges.
In October, a court in Berlin issued a penalty order against Zverev and slapped the ATP world No. 4 with a €450k fine after Brenda Patea – his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child – accused the German tennis star of physical abuse during a dispute in 2020 May. At the time, Zverev didn’t accept the ruling and appealed.
According to the court documents, Zverev “briefly choked Patea with both hands” in the stairwell of an apartment building in Berlin. Following the incident, Patea allegedly experienced “difficulty breathing and significant pain.”
Zverev, who is currently competing at the French Open, is represented by his lawyers and he opted not to appear in court after he was left with the option to choose whether or not to appear.
Alexander Zverev© Getty Images Sport – Dan Istitene
But Patea was on Friday in court and she is set to testify on Monday.
What Zverev said about his appeal process in Paris?
Before the start of the French Open, Zverev shut down claims that he was feeling any moral guilt for coming to Roland Garros. Instead, the 27-year-old German insisted he was innocent and that the German law system would prove that.
“At the end of the day, I do believe in the German system. I do believe in the truth as well. I have to be certain that, you know, I do know what I did, I do know what I didn’t do. That’s, at the end of the day, what’s going to come out, and I have to trust in that,” Zverev said before the start of the French Open.
Then, Zverev proceeded to make a big statement, in which he said there was no chance he would lose his trial.
“I do believe that I’m not going to lose this procedure. There’s absolutely no chance I am. That’s why I can play calmly,” Zverev said.
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