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Tennis: Ex-manager Patricio Apey responds to criticism from Alexander Zverev
Surprisingly Germany's tennis star Alexander Zverev retired in the first round of Wimbledon. Right after the defeat against Jiri Vesely, Zverev said the ongoing lawsuit with his former manager Patricio Apey was weighing heavily on him. He is now resisting the allegations.
"His statements are both surprising and disappointing," said Apey, according to the Sports Information Service: "He has broken a costly, unnecessary and absolutely illegitimate litigation against my company when he consciously and illegally his until at least 2023 valid Broken contract. "
Apey emphasized that Zverev herself had decided to settle the dispute in court. "I would have preferred to settle the matter or any reservations that Sascha and his family had privately, but unfortunately he has decided to take legal action without warning, and this process is now underway." Now that his results are "not that good, I'm being portrayed as a scapegoat."
Tim Ireland / AP
Alexander Zverev lost in the first round of Wimbledon
Zverev had shared the conflict with Apey for his failure. "It's a person who has had a lot to do with my life, and he's just trying to make my life as hard as possible," he said, without explicitly mentioning Apey's name: "What's going on is abysmal must not say anything official. "
"The only one who makes life difficult for him is Sascha himself," says Apey, "None of the Zverev family has bothered to contact me, we have not spoken since January, they prefer it to communicate via lawyers. " However, he was "always open for a meeting" and ready to clarify the matter "whenever he wished".
As late as November 2018, Apey Zverev praised the music in an interview with SPIEGEL. The good relationship now seems broken.