German participant Alexander Zverev faces a trial throughout this 12 months’s French Open over home abuse allegations.
The listening to begins on 31 Might and Zverev doesn’t have to seem in individual, German court docket officers advised BBC Sport.
In November, Zverev was given a penalty order and fined after being accused of bodily abusing his ex-girlfriend.
Zverev denies the costs and has lodged an objection in opposition to the order, that means he stays legally harmless and isn’t convicted till a ultimate ruling.
German legislation permits sentences in instances of bodily abuse to vary from a superb or as much as 5 years in jail. With the court docket already issuing a 450,000 euro (£390,000) superb, it’s possible that penalty will stay if he’s discovered responsible.
Talking at an ATP event in Paris in November, Olympic champion Zverev confirmed he supposed to contest the penalty however wouldn’t remark additional.
On Monday, the Tiergarten district court docket in Berlin mentioned it had set the date for what is anticipated to be an eight-day public trial in entrance of a single choose.
The information got here on the eve of world quantity six Zverev beginning his Australian Open marketing campaign – a four-set win over fellow German Dominik Koepfer in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Requested in a information convention after the match if it was applicable for him to proceed on the ATP participant council, Zverev replied: “Why would it not not be?”
Zverev, who will play within the second spherical on Thursday, mentioned he has no “purpose to not imagine” he has the backing of his fellow rivals.
The French Open, the place Zverev has reached the semi-finals in every of the previous three years, begins on 26 Might and runs till 9 June.
“The defendant will, in precept, not have to seem in individual as a result of it’s a listening to after he contested the penalty order,” a court docket spokesperson advised BBC Sport.
After the beginning of the case on 31 Might, the court docket will sit on 7, 11, 18 and 21 June, adopted by 5, 12 and 19 July.
Wimbledon – the third Grand Slam of the season – takes locations between 1 and 14 July, adopted by the Paris Olympics from 26 July.
Extra dates may be added if the choose says time will likely be wanted to look at the proof and, for instance, name extra witnesses.
The spokesperson mentioned Zverev has not been ordered to attend the listening to, however added the court docket may “theoretically” ask him to seem later within the trial.
A penalty order in Germany is issued when a choose, after inspecting the written proof, believes a ruling may be made with out going to trial.
The defendant has the fitting to contest the penalty order, which is able to possible result in a public trial.
In an announcement launched when the penalty order was issued in November, Zverev’s attorneys mentioned the proof had been dismissed as “incomprehensible and contradictory” by a forensic medical report from a Berlin physician.
Authorized agency Schertz Bergmann additionally claimed the method resulting in the penalty order had included “critical procedural violations”.
Zverev will defend the case with “all of the means at his disposal”, Schertz Bergmann added.