The former couple wanted to end their public feud and “look forward,” also in regard to “their joint custody of their child,” Lüders said.
Zverev indicated before the ongoing French Open that he was confident he would be cleared.
“At the end of the day, I do believe in the German system. I do believe in the truth, as well," he said.
Zverev, who was to face Norway’s Casper Ruud in the French Open semifinals on Friday, did not appear before the court. Patea testified as a witness in a session that was closed to the public.
“It remains unclear what happened,” dpa reported a court spokeswoman as saying on Friday.
Zverev’s lawyers, Anna Sophie Heuchemer and Katharina Dierlamm, issued a statement after the case was dropped stressing their client's presumption of innocence.
“Alexander Zverev agreed to this discontinuation through his defense attorney solely to shorten the proceedings — above all in the interest of their child. Alexander Zverev is still considered innocent," the lawyers said. “The discontinuation does not constitute a finding of guilt or an admission of guilt. The legal presumption of innocence remains unaffected.”
A lawyer for Patea did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Zverev previously denied abuse allegations from another former girlfriend, Olga Sharypova, who first made the accusations in 2020 and followed up in 2021 with a detailed account in a Slate.com article that was taken down because of a preliminary injunction issued by a German court. Slate said it stood by the article.
Sharypova accused Zverev of attempted to strangle her with a pillow and hitting her head against a wall at a New York hotel in 2019. She said she feared for her life.
The allegations prompted the men’s professional tennis tour, the ATP, to
investigate her claims. It ended 15 months later, in January 2023, with the
ATP saying there was “insufficient evidence” to substantiate the claims.
