Alexander Zverev issued a worrying health update before crashing out of the Cincinnati Open. The German was defeated 6-4, 6-3 by Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals on Saturday as he missed out on a place in the final.
Zverev, who is ranked at No. 3 in the world, has experienced mix fortunes on the court this year and was knocked out of Wimbledon in the first round after reaching the Australian Open final in January. In April. the 28-year-old won the BMW Open in Munich and went on to reach the Stuttgart Open final in June. And he has now progressed to the semi-finals of back-to-back tournaments after also reaching the last four of the Canadian Open earlier this month.
Zverev was in fine form during his Cincinnati Open quarter-final clash with Ben Shelton after overcoming the American in the Munich final.
The three-time Grand Slam finalist needed just one hour and 17 minutes to dispatch Shelton during a one-sided match as he cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
But the German called for the doctor in the early stages of the second set after appearing to be dealing with breathing issues.
Before asking for assistance, Zverev was heard saying on the court: “My head is spinning. I can’t get any air into my lungs.”
And after the match, he explained: “Right now, I’m not feeling too great. We’ll see. I have a day to get fresh and to hopefully feel 100 per cent again.
“I’m not sure what happened, I came out today and probably felt the best I did in a few months. I was feeling the ball incredibly well from both sides.
“But I started feeling not so great at the end of the opening set, and things got progressively worse. But I’m in the semi-finals and I’ll do everything I can to be 100 per cent tomorrow.”
Zverev was forced to take another medical timeout during the second set of his encounter with Alcaraz, with his performance eventually tailing off as the Spaniard cruised to victory.
And after the showdown, Alcaraz said: “It’s never easy playing against someone that you know is not feeling 100 per cent.
“It’s even tougher when it comes from Sascha, such a great player, such a great person off the court. We have a really good relationship.
“We started the match really good, playing good rallies, a good level of tennis. But then all of a sudden he started to feel bad. And then my focus, I was thinking about how he’s feeling, besides focusing on myself and playing good tennis. It was a really difficult situation for me and I just wish him all the best.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk