"I wanted Alexander Zverev to sit in discomfort" - Australian Open heckler breaks silence after highlighting German's domestic abuse allegations

The woman, who controversially heckled Alexander Zverev after the 2024 Australian Open men's singles final, spoke about why she did what she did. The incident happened just as Zverev was about to start his post-match speech. He lost the title to reigning ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg, who was also at Rod Laver Arena to watch the final, earlier claimed that he wanted to approach the woman for comment following the incident. However, according to the journalist, the security prevented him from proceeding.

Rothenberg also reported that police personnel evicted the heckler. Later though, he managed to establish contact with the woman after a brief exchange on Instagram.

Rothenberg shared the woman's perspective on the heckling incident via Bounces, his newsletter on Substack. Without naming herself, she revealed that during the 2025 Australian Open final, hearing chants of the German's nickname, 'Sascha', infuriated her because of the controversial domestic abuse allegations made against him by two of his former partners.

"I was sitting on his player’s box end of the court. All night, people were cheering ‘Sascha! Sascha! Sascha!’ It was gross. He may try to bully people—ATP, journos, whomever—into quashing the story. But I wanted him to know that tennis fans know and we care about those women. And we f**king believe them," the woman told Rothenberg.

The woman, of Eastern European origin, also cited her personal experience of abuse and how it motivated her to make Alexander Zverev feel as uncomfortable as possible.

"I wanted Sascha to sit in his own discomfort, [to know] that we will not forget, even if he wants to brush it aside. And as an Eastern European woman who grew up in an abusive environment supported by the power of silence in ‘household matters,’ I wanted my voice to be heard," she added.

The woman's furious words, "Australia believes Olya and Brenda!", which she repeated thrice, also prompted Craig Tiley, the tournament director of the Australian Open, to react to the controversy.

"They're not welcome": Craig Tiley about the woman who heckled Alexander Zverev in Australian Open

Craig Tiley (Source: Getty)

Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open director, Craig Tiley, was blatantly critical of the woman for heckling Alexander Zverev. Tiley told 3AW, a popular radio station in Melbourne:

"As far as the individuals shouting things during the matches, we've said this before: if anyone comes on site and tries to be disruptive and tries to make a point, they're not welcome. We don't want them. They ruin it for everyone else. And similarly that [incident] last night, that incident just—it ruined this for everyone, if someone's going to behave like that. So they can stay away. And if they come and do that, we’ll remove them."

Zverev took a sarcastic swipe at the woman during his post-match press conference. The German claimed that no one else in Rod Laver Arena at the time believed in the past allegations made against him by former partners Olga 'Olya' Sharypova and Brenda Patea.

Patea pressed formal charges against Zverev in 2023, which the latter appealed against, leading to a public trial in a German court last year. The trial ended with an out-of-court settlement between the two parties.

Sharypova's allegations, meanwhile, were surfaced by Rothenberg via two articles, which led to Zverev filing a defamation lawsuit against the journalist. The last update about the ongoing lawsuit came from Rothenberg in December 2024.