Alexander Zverev's personal life unfairly clouds his French Open success

Alexander Zverev has advanced to his second Grand Slam final. It took the 27-year-old German and 2020 US Open finalist four difficult years to get himself back to a Grand Slam final. He was close in 2022 but suffered a horrific ankle injury in his Roland Garros semifinal match against Rafael Nadal

Zverev is widely considered one of the most talented ATP players to never win a Grand Slam, and he is in a position to correct history on Sunday against Carlos Alcaraz in the 2024 French Open final.

His off-the-court issues including a recent trial for allegations by an ex-girlfriend of abuse have been settled, and he has made it clear that he does not want to answer questions about it ever again. If he wins the French Open on Sunday, will his strong stance with the media regarding personal questions cloud the win? It probably will, but it should not.

The media should leave Alexander Zverev's personal life alone since professional tennis did

There is no doubt that questions linger about Zverev's personal conduct in recent years, but tennis fans are never going to know the whole story. The governing bodies of tennis and the tournaments he participated in did not penalize or punish him. He was allowed to play the sport he loved with no additional scrutiny.

French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said he was innocent until proven guilty which was consistent with the position that professional tennis maintained. Professional tennis did not want to interfere with the German legal system.

That is where the debate and media attention should be focused. Should professional tennis be doing more in these situations? The sport could hold its players to higher scrutiny regarding character and mental health issues (in the case of Andrey Rublev's on-court tirades).

Until the sport makes that decision, there is no productive reason for the media to hound Zverev on the details of a case he never wanted to discuss in the Court of Public Opinion in the first place. Asking the ATP how it plans to manage these situations in the future could be more productive...maybe.

Read more on Lob and Smash