Bitter locker room whispers about Alexander Zverev: How US Open champ became center of vicious WAG wars... and the brutal three-word takedown that will haunt him forever

Alexander Zverev is at the peak of his powers after US Open glory but claims of domestic abuse, cheap shots at girlfriends of rival players and bizarre gamesmanship mean his reputation as the sport's most divisive star has never been stronger. 

If there is any doubting that, listen to John McEnroe's comments just seconds after the towering German won the US Open final on Sunday in New York.

'The rebirth of Sascha Zverev also continues into 2027 - Down Under awaits, huh?' ESPN's lead announcer Chris Fowler said, looking ahead to the Australian Open in January.

'Get healthy Carlos [Alcaraz] and Jannik [Sinner]!' responded McEnroe, the seven-time Grand Slam champion, in a withering assessment of those occupying the top spots in the sport while the top two are dealing with injury problems.

One of those is Zverev, the 29-year-old German who has pounced on Alcaraz and Sinner's absences to collect his first two Grand Slam titles and rise to World No 2. 

The 6ft 6in player, who has earned $74 million in prize money, has won 26 titles, including the year-end ATP Tour finals twice and the Olympic gold medal in his career. But before this year he had a habit of letting his sport's biggest prizes slip away.

Going into this summer, he was a three-time Grand Slam finalist who had led two of them and blown it, and a seven-time semi-finalist. It felt like he was the 'nearly man' of the sport.

But the last three months, Zverev hit his stride at the perfect moment.

He won his first Grand Slam at the French Open in June (when Alcaraz was injured and Sinner lost in round two), lost to Sinner in the Wimbledon final (when Alcaraz was injured) and then collected his second Grand Slam title in 2026 by beating American Ben Shelton on Sunday night (when Sinner was absent and Alcaraz was rusty).

But on what should have been one of the best days of his career, Zverev still became the center of a storm.

Beaten finalist Shelton called on tennis bosses to impose a shot clock on second serves after Zverev routinely bounced the ball more than a dozen times before hitting his serve.

Throughout his run to glory in New York, fans became increasingly annoyed by the German's penchant for bouncing the ball repeatedly. Bouncing it is not uncommon, yet Zverev does it to a level beyond what is considered the norm.

In an interview, he was asked about the habit and laughed.

'I have no idea why. I'm not doing it on purpose,' Zverev said. 'I saw the stat, like I bounced it 12,000 times or something like that. That was quite funny.'

Zverev added: 'I'm not counting in my head. I'm not getting a certain number or anything like that. I don't know why it increased so much. 

'I think today it decreased again. Because I saw it before the semifinals. So I was like, okay, it's got to go less. But then I forget about it every once in a while, and then it goes up to - I don't know what number it is.'

When asked if there's anything specific that happens to get him to stop bouncing the ball, Zverev replied: 'No clue. Honestly, really honestly, no idea.'

Zverev's habit sparked calls for change from tennis legends like McEnroe. After Sunday's final, Shelton echoed those frustrations. 

'I definitely think for a first serve, you should be able to do whatever you want,' Shelton said.

'I think that there should be some sort of rule… limiting time on second serve. You shouldn't have unlimited time. For our sport, for fans, I think it's tough to be sitting there that long for the next play, the next action to happen.'

Shelton added: 'I'm sure at some point it will be something these tournaments look at.'

According to reports, Zverev had bounced the ball over 12,000 times in his first five US Open matches. Following his semifinal loss to the German, Karen Khachanov said Zverev's antics have been noted by many fellow competitors in the locker room.

'The way he bounces the ball, it annoys not only me, of course, [but] a lot of players,' he said. 

Throughout Sunday's final, Shelton would wait before setting himself for Zverev's serve, only sinking into a crouch once his opponent had begun his exhaustive routine.

That landed him in trouble with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic and afterwards Shelton took issue with another rule around the return of serve.

'She was telling me I need to get to the line earlier, and I was like: "He can start his routine whenever he wants,"' Shelton explained.

'I promise you there will never be a time where he serves and I'm not ready… if he's bouncing the ball 20 to 25 times, I shouldn't have to just sit there for that… I think that is a stupid rule.'

Shelton added: 'He never does less than ten bounces… I'm not going to sit there in a ready position with my knees bent, tension in my body for 30 seconds while I'm waiting.'

Compounding Shelton's misery, Zverev jumped on the microphone after their match to deliver his victory speech and addressed Trinity Rodman, Shelton's soccer star girlfriend and the daughter of NBA icon Dennis Rodman. 

Rodman played for Washington Spirit earlier in the day and raced to New York for the end of Shelton's US Open final.

'Hey Trinity, I thought you have a game today, no? Well done to you as well. You're the lucky charm, so. Not today, but usually,' Zverev joked.

Rodman appeared to take it in her stride, laughing at the German's comments while shown on the big screen inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

But it wasn't the first time Zverev has had a public incident with the girlfriend of one of his rivals.

Most famously, after a five-set thriller at Wimbledon in 2024, Zverev expressed his anger over the noise coming from Taylor Fritz's box, where his now ex-girlfriend Morgan Riddle was seated. 

Adding to the intrigue was a curious social media post from Riddle, a glamorous influencer, that many saw as a reference to domestic abuse claims made against Zverev back in 2020.

A social media influencer who has 27million likes on TikTok, Riddle later deleted an Instagram video she posted that included the caption: 'when your man wins 4 the girls.'

She had also posted a picture of the court to her story and wrote, 'cheer loud ladies.' That post also disappeared.

After that match, Fritz sat down for an interview with The Tennis Channel and shed light on the feud – following a discussion with Zverev on court.

He explained: 'I think he was a little upset about my team members cheering for me when he was injured but he said: "It's nothing to do with you. You're all good." Whatever, it's all good.'

Zverev said afterwards that he was upset with some people in Fritz's box who 'may not be from the tennis world.'

'His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they're extremely respectful,' Zverev said.

But despite his on-court success, many tennis fans still find it impossible to separate the player from the man who was accused by former girlfriends Olya Sharypova and Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, of physical abuse.

In a 2020 interview with Ben Rothenberg for Racquet magazine, Sharypova claimed Zverev tried to smother her with a pillow until she could no longer breathe, prompting her to flee, barefoot, on to the streets of New York.

At the Laver Cup in Geneva months later, she claimed he punched her in the face for the first time.

Sharypova did not pursue the claims, while the ATP took no action after an investigation. Zverev has always denied any wrongdoing, insisting her 'unfounded allegations' were 'simply not true.'

In 2023, a Berlin court hit Zverev with a $475,000 fine and penalty order after accusations of abuse by Patea. Zverev contested it and faced a public hearing a year later, during which the prosecutor told the court that 'after a heated argument' Zverev allegedly pushed Patea against a wall and tried to strangle her with both hands.

Zverev repeatedly denied those allegations, too. Midway through the hearing, and during the French Open in 2024, the two settled out of court.

Zverev, who has now been in a relationship with fellow German Sophia Thomalla for over five years, paid a fine of around $220,000, with three quarters of it going to the state and the rest to charity. The court said the decision was neither a verdict nor a decision about guilt.

The phrase 'anyone but Zverev' continues to trend on social media during his matches and the sight of him collecting a trophy from the Princess of Wales on Wimbledon's Center Court earlier this summer left a sour taste. 

There are also those who refuse to let him forget it. Zverev asked for a fan to be removed at the Munich Open last year who shouted: 'Let's go, you wife beater!'

During the trophy presentation after his Australian Open final defeat last year, a woman stood and bellowed: 'Australia believes Olya and Brenda!'

All of those things combine to make Zverev the least-liked US Open champion in years.

In 2023, Novak Djokovic won the tournament just months after the US government changed its vaccination requirements for international travelers following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Serbian is one of the most high-profile athletes who is not vaccinated against the deadly virus and he missed the tournament in 2022 because of his stance. 

In 2001, Australian star Lleyton Hewitt went on to win the tournament after he was embroiled in a racism scandal over comments he made towards American James Blake and linesman Marion Johnson in the second round.

'Look at him, mate. Look at him. You tell me what the similarity is,' the then-20 year-old Hewitt told Swiss umpire Andres Egli about Blake and Johnson, who are both African Americans.

'You put him off the court, get him off the court,' Hewitt demanded after he insisted two foot-fault calls made against him by Johnson were incorrect.  

So now Zverev heads towards November's season-ending ATP Tour Finals in Turin as the most in-form player in the world and with two Grand Slam titles to his name.

But with plenty of skepticism following his every victory, the German is unlikely to ever receive the outpouring of adoration that his on-court success would otherwise deserve.