A tennis writer turns to crowdfunding for legal costs after World No.4 Alexander Zverev files a lawsuit | Tennis News

Four years on from the revelations of domestic abuse from Olga Sharypova, an ex-girlfriend of World No. 4 tennis player Alexander Zverev, the journal that covered her story has had to crowd-fund the legal fees to fight off a lawsuit from the German.In a post on X, renowned tennis writer Ben Rothenberg shared a link on ‘GoFundMe’, a crowdfunding website, after giving details of the cost of litigation with Zverev’s legal team in German courts. The following day, Rothenberg revealed that the entire funding goal of $22,000 was completed in 22 hours, adding that he will send 100% of the money that he receives that does not go towards legal costs to House of Ruth, a domestic violence shelter in Washington.
“It’s been dispiriting,” Rothenberg said. “I don’t regret any of it… but it certainly has not made life easier,” Rothenberg told The Washington Post.

Thanks to the folks reaching out with words of support regarding my still ongoing legal battle with Zverev over my reporting from 2020, I really do appreciate it tons.
If you are able to support my crowdfunding efforts in this case, the link is here:https://t.co/jclYajPBDq
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) August 27, 2024
In 2020, after Sharypova levelled allegations of abuse against Zverev on social media, Rothenberg, a well-known member of the tennis media commissioned the New York Times to cover Grand Slam tournaments between 2011 and 2022, interviewed her to reveal her side of the story in a two-part series, published first in Racquet magazine, and later in online publication Slate.
Zverev, who has staunchly denied all allegations, subsequently embroiled him in litigation on grounds of defamation.
In Rothenberg’s first story for Racquet in November 2020, Sharypova put out graphic details of emotional and physical abuse, alleging that the German punched her, hit her head into a wall, and attempted to smother her with a pillow. Rothenberg also interviewed select family and friends.
There was early outrage, and calls for an investigation from the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour, considering some allegations had been made about incidents at tournament hotels. They quickly died as Zverev continued to play in 2021, even winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Rothenberg’s second story, published Slate in August 2021, caused more of a storm. Pictures and screenshots of chats were shared, as well as greater depth of details of the purported abuse that took place during ATP tournaments and the Laver Cup in Geneva. Sharypova added that after Zverev attacked her in a hotel room during the Shanghai Masters in 2019, she attempted to take her own life injecting herself with insulin.
The ATP were forced to launch an investigation, which they ended in 2023 after finding “insufficient evidence” to support Sharypova’s claims.
Pressure on Zverev
Pressure mounted on Zverev further that year, after Brenda Patea, another ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, accused him of attempting to choke her in a Berlin flat in 2020. Patea took him to court; according to The Guardian, he was fined 450,000 euros according to a German penalty order in October 2023. He appealed the case, and within the first week of the commencement of the court hearings in May 2024, he came to a six-figure settlement with Patea to end their lengthy legal battle just in time for him to appear on millions of television screens across the world as he played the final of the French Open.
No repercussions
While Zverev’s claims of defamation have been upheld the legal system in Germany, he has felt little to no repercussions. The ATP ended its investigations into the matter; there was little conflict in the locker room (he was even elected to represent them on the ATP Players Council earlier this year); and he was included in Netflix’s now cancelled docu-series on the tennis tour that made no mention of the allegations.
Repercussions were instead borne the publishers, as the report in The Washington Post suggests. Zverev was able to get a preliminary injunction in Germany against Slate, who were forced to “geoblock” the story in Germany, still standing their reporting and keeping the story available to readers in places like the United States and India.
Racquet got away without much of a legal battle due to technicalities. The Washington Post reported that it was ‘because of an error in how the lawsuit was served to Racquet’s publishers’. But Rothenberg is now embroiled in the legal battle.

Rothenberg told The Washington Post that Racquet stopped funding the cost of the legal case after he also started writing for Second Serve, a new tennis magazine.
He is now forced to fight on his own, with renewed financial help from his online readership.