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New Delhi: Alexander Zverev slammed officials for allowing Carlos Alcaraz a medical timeout for a leg issue after suffering a defeat in an epic five-setter against the Spaniard in the Australian Open's longest semi-final on Friday, January 30.
The World No.1 Alcaraz was struggling to move in the third set at 4-4 and was allowed treatment on his right thigh after the change of ends, leaving the German angry. After the match, Alcaraz said that he was worried that he may have strained an adductor muscle, but Zverev remained adamant that the Spaniard's problem was cramp, which is not in the rules for medical timeouts.
Alcaraz struggled and dropped the next two sets, but was back running in full flow during the fifth to register a stunning 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-7(4), 7-5 victory against Zverev in five hours and 27 minutes.
"Yeah, I mean, he was cramping, so normally you can't take a medical time-out for cramping. What can I do? It's not my decision. I didn't like it, but it's not my decision," Zverev said at his post-match press conference.
Zverev also lashed out on court at a match supervisor as the Spaniard underwent treatment. "I just said it was bullshit, basically," he said later of the exchange. The German further added that Alcaraz took like an hour and a half off, where he was struggling to move at all, and he should have used that advantage in a better way.
"Maybe I should have won the games and won the sets a bit quicker. Then moving into the fifth, maybe he wouldn't have had so much time to recover. But the fifth set, the way he was moving, was incredible again," he added.
Carlos Alcaraz said he did not know if he was cramping or had suffered an injury when a medical timeout was called. The Spaniard further added that he started to feel the pain in the right adductor, and that's why he called the physio.
"I just called the physio because in that moment, the left leg was good. In that moment, I just talked to the physio. I said, okay, I just went to run to the forehand side, and I started to feel like the right adductor. He decided to take the medical timeout, and he did it," Alcaraz added.
