A day after Alexander Zverev’s ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea revealed that she was pregnant with his child, another former girlfriend has stepped out and accused him of physical abuse.
Former Russian tennis player Olga Sharypova, who was with Zverev from 2018 to 2019, said she had been in an abusive relationship.
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In an Instagram post on Wednesday, she wrote, “In August last year, I ran out of the hotel barefoot, beaten. I stood on a New York street and did not know where to go and what to do. They tried to strangle me with a pillow, hit my head against the wall, twisted my arms and at that moment I was really afraid for my life.”
While the 23-year-old Sharypova did not name Zverev in her post, she confirmed to Russian publication ‘Championship’ that Zverev was the man in question.
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“This was not the first situation, there were a lot of them,” Sharypova, who knows Zverev since their junior tennis days, said of the physical abuse.
“But every time I tried to forget it and blamed myself for it. But then in August it was really scary. I was really scared for my life.”
“Sasha’s (Zverev’s) parents didn’t talk to me much. Whether they knew or not, I cannot say. As for mutual acquaintances, no one knew this…In general, for a long time I did not want to spoil Sasha’s reputation.”
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Sharypova’s revelation came close on heels of Patea announcing that she was pregnant with Zverev’s child but had no intention of sharing the child’s custody with the tennis star.
When questioned about the timing of her Instagram post, Sharypova said, “I was going to tell about it. And I wanted to do it for a long time.
“It just so happened that it was on this day that two of his ex-girlfriends made loud statements. Boomerang returned to him today. For each of their actions, people must be responsible: be it a child or violence.
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“Now I understand that people should be responsible for such actions. I don’t want anyone to be in the same situation as me. If a person does not know how to build relationships, maybe they do not need to start?”
She added that she was not scared of the vitriol that may be directed towards her for accusing Zverev, seen as one of the most promising young talents in men’s tennis.
“No. I was attacked by his environment when I was in a relationship with him. And I survived it,” she said.
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“I’ll survive that too. I just want Sasha to understand that sooner or later everything must be answered. Naturally, there are no direct witnesses that he strangled me, and cannot be, because it happened in private. But I am ready for any tests, including a lie detector, to confirm my words. I do not demand anything from him. I just want it to be known.”
Here is Sharypova’s detailed account of what happened in New York in 2019 (quotes translated from Russian via Google):
On that day, I was just walking with Dasha Medvedeva (Daniil Medvedev’s wife) and my friend. We lingered a little, and Sasha got angry about it. When I got home, we had a fight. Our quarrels always took place from scratch.
I wrote on Instagram that he tried to strangle me with a pillow, twisted his arms. I tried to run out of the room several times, but he would not let me. I was afraid that someone might see and hear us. But in the end I managed to break free, and I ran off barefoot with one phone on a string.
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At first I was hiding in a hotel, but Sasha went downstairs and found me. We stood near the side entrance. I sobbed and tried to leave, and he wanted me to return to the room and we talked. But I understood that at that moment there would be no dialogue.
I was scared and wanted to run away. But Sasha pushed me against the wall and said that he would get nothing for it.
And that no one cares about me, no matter what he does to me. Fortunately, at that moment people appeared, and I slipped out into the street with them.
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I was alone, barefoot in the middle of the street. It’s good that I had a phone, and I was able to contact a friend who took me to his family. This correspondence was kept by my friend.
All things, money, documents – everything remained in the room. After this situation, Sasha wrote and called me. At first I didn’t want to see him, but I decided that we still need to talk. I arrived at the hotel and waited for him in the lobby, because I did not have a room card. While we corresponded with Sasha, we again began to swear with him.
I sat in the hotel toilet and cried. And when he arrived at the hotel, he just threw my things into the lobby. A friend whose family took me in has this photo left.
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But the most interesting thing is that nobody gave me my passport. It turns out that I was left with my things, but I can’t fly home.
A day later, he came to the house where I was to make peace. And due to the fact that there were witnesses, we were able to talk normally. As a result, we continued our relationship.
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During the US Open, I sat at his matches, and then went with him to Geneva for the Laver Cup and to China for tournaments. Then we parted, but I’m not ready to talk about this yet. This is a very long story, in which many people are already tied.
