Australian Open fans didn’t hesitate to punch Alexander Zverev while he was down.
After getting overrun by Jannik Sinner, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in the men’s singles final Sunday to give the world No. 1 player a back-to-back victory in Melbourne, fans called out Zverev for his dark past, referencing two of the German player’s ex-girlfriends, who have accused him of domestic abuse.
As the 27-year-old was preparing to give his runner-up speech after losing his third Grand Slam final, a woman called out from the crowd, yelling, “Australia believes Olga and Brenda,” three times.
Some boos followed from the crowd, but cheers for the player were also mixed in. Zverev did not address the brief interruption during his speech.
The fan was referring to Zverev’s former partners, Olga Sharypova and Brenda Patea, the latter being the mother of his daughter, Mayla.
Zverev, the world No. 2 player, has continued to deny the allegations against him and he settled a case against him from Patea in June with no admission of guilt.
It’s not the first time Zverev has experienced any backlash from fans during a Grand Slam.
At the U.S. Open last year, Morgan Riddle, the girlfriend of American Taylor Fritz, made several Instagram posts around the matchup between her beau and the German.
The influencer had the internet buzzing in her since-deleted videos surrounding Fritz’s Round of 16 victory that featured captions of “When ur mans wins for the girls” and “Cheer loud ladies.”
Shortly after, Riddle took back her words.
“Regarding my stories yesterday… I took them down as soon as I realized the misunderstanding and how blown out of proportion they had become by the media,” she said. “They were not about anything that’s happened off the tennis court & there’s no bad blood between anyone.
Sinner solidified a 3-0 Grand Slam finals record, becoming the eighth man in the Open Era (starting in 1968) to do so.
On the other hand, Zverev is the seventh to be 0-3, adding Saturday’s loss to his 2020 U.S. Open and 2024 French Open shortcomings.
Following the match, the German admitted he didn’t know if he would ever be able to hold the first-place trophy.
“We’re trying to do all the right work,” Zverev said. “I’m just not good enough.”
“First of all, it sucks standing next to this thing and not being able to touch it. I’ll be honest,” he continued. “Congratulations to Jannik, you more than deserve it, you’re the best player in the world by far. I was hoping that I could be more competitive today but you’re just too good. It’s as simple as that. I really did think I had a chance, but here I am. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to lift this trophy, but I’ll keep coming back, I’ll keep trying, and I’ll see you next year.”
There was only one notable moment of the match that gave a bit of hope to Zverev, coming when he was two points from winning the second set.
He was leading, 5-4, and was up love-30 on Sinner’s serve, ready to break the Italian.
However, a break point nor a set point was earned and Sinner went on to win the next four points and eventually took the tiebreaker.
The final was the first between a No. 1 and No. 2 players since 2019 when No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal, which was also in straight sets.
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