Fuming Alexander Zverev blasts Carlos Alcaraz incident after brutal Australian Open loss | Tennis | Sport

Alexander Zverev has again hit out at a “bulls***” decision to allow Carlos Alcaraz a medical timeout during their Australian Open semi-final. The world No. 1 let by two sets to love but started cramping at 4-4 in the third set. He held serve and then called the physio, receiving a full, three-minute medical timeout.

At the time, it wasn’t clear whether Alcaraz was injured or was just cramping. Players cannot take medical timeouts for cramps, but can receive treatment up to three times during a changeover. And Zverev wasn’t happy.

While on the court, the No. 3 seed said it was “bulls***” that the umpire waited to see if Alcaraz was alright during the 4-4 game before starting the shot clock, and that he was able to have three minutes of treatment. Zverev also had a heated conversation with the supervisor in German, reportedly saying Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were “protected”.

During his post-match press conference, the Tokyo Olympic champion addressed Alcaraz’s time with the physio was asked what he said to the supervisor during the medical timeout.

“I mean, he was cramping, so normally you can’t take a medical timeout for cramping, yeah. What can I do? It’s not my decision. I didn’t like it, but it’s not my decision. I just said it was bulls***, basically,” he started.

Zverev was also asked whether he had claimed that Alcaraz and Sinner received protection from the rules, but he couldn’t recall. “I don’t remember. To be honest, it was 17 hours ago,” he joked.

“And I don’t quite remember, but I’m sure somebody has it on video, and you can check. But, to be honest, I don’t want to talk about this right now, because I think this is one of the best battles there ever was in Australia. It doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”

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Zverev made the most of Alcaraz’s physical woes. He won the third and fourth sets in a tiebreak, and broke early in the decider. But the world No. 1 reeled off the last four games, breaking when Zverev served for the match, and won 6-4 7-6 6-7 6-7 7-5.

The German later explained that he ran out of gas in the fifth set, and had bigger regrets about the second set, when he led 5-2 before losing it. He added: “Unbelievable fight, battle. Unfortunate ending for me, but to be honest, I had absolutely nothing left in me. Even at 5-4, you know normally I can rely on my serve a bit more. My legs stopped pushing upward, so yeah, that’s the way it is. This is life. We move on.

“Yeah, the second set. That one, for me, I felt like I should have won. You know, especially serving for it, I didn’t play a good game serving for it.

Funny enough, I don’t have many regrets in the fifth set, because I was hanging on for dear life, to be honest. I was exhausted. But, yeah, the second set. I think going up, being one set all, and him starting to cramp in the third set, that probably would have made a difference, yeah.”