"It doesn't deserve to be a topic now": Alexander Zverev tries to dispel chatter about medical timeout meltdown during Carlos Alcaraz epic

Alexander Zverev left the Australian Open semi-finals exhausted but encouraged after a five-set defeat to Carlos Alcaraz, losing 6–4, 7–6, 6–7, 6–7, 7–5 in one of the tournament’s most dramatic battles.

The German pushed Alcaraz to the absolute limit in a marathon contest that swung repeatedly in momentum and ended deep into a fifth set, with Zverev admitting afterwards that he simply had nothing left when the match reached its decisive moments at the Australian Open with Alcaraz now set to face Djokovic or Sinner.

“Yeah, unbelievable fight, battle,” Zverev said afterwards. “Unfortunate ending for me, but to be honest, I had absolutely nothing left in me. So even at 5–4, normally I can rely on my serve a bit more, but my legs stopped pushing upwards. So yeah, it’s the way it is. This is life. We move on.”

Zverev had fought back superbly after falling two sets behind, clawing his way back into the match to force a fifth set, but the physical toll was evident as the contest wore on. He admitted that while the final set left him with few regrets, earlier moments in the match weighed more heavily.

“Yeah, the second set,” he said when asked about regrets. “That one, for me, I felt like I should have won, 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.”

Zverev felt that winning the second set could have changed the entire complexion of the match, particularly given Alcaraz’s physical struggles later on.

“I think being one set all, and then him starting to cramp in the third set, that probably would have made a difference,” he said. “It would have played out as a new career, probably.”

A key talking point during the match was Alcaraz receiving medical treatment while struggling physically, something Zverev made clear he was unhappy with, while stressing that the decision was out of his hands.

“I mean, he was cramping, so normally you can’t take a medical time-out for cramping,” Zverev said. “But what can I do? It’s not my decision. I didn’t like it, but it’s not my decision.”

Pressed on comments he was heard making in German during the stoppage, Zverev did not shy away from what he had said, though he was keen to move on from the issue.

“When it was first happening and he was taking the MTO, I just said it was bulls*** basically,” he explained. “But to be honest, I don’t want to talk about this right now, because I think this was one of the best battles there ever was in Australia, and it doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”

Despite Alcaraz’s visible struggles in the third set, Zverev felt he did not fully capitalise in the middle stages of the match. “I didn’t do a good job in the third and fourth set,” he admitted. “I should have won them easier, in a way. But he was hitting a lot of winners from the first shot, so I wasn’t getting into the rallies. I should have probably been a bit more aggressive.”

Still, he acknowledged that those moments contributed to the quality of the contest as a whole.

“We got a great battle out of it because of it,” Zverev said. “So yeah.”

Zverev also spoke about the mental challenge of facing an opponent who is struggling physically but remains dangerous, particularly when the scoreline is tight. “I got a bit nervous,” he said. “Obviously, I’m down two sets to love, so I don’t want to lose my serve either. Because then he can serve it out, even if you’re not feeling maybe 100 percent. He can still serve it out.

“You saw how hard he was hitting his forehand, how well he was hitting his backhand. He’s still a great player, no matter what is happening.”

The fifth set brought another layer of intrigue, with Alcaraz carrying a formidable record in deciding sets at Grand Slams. Zverev, however, insisted that such statistics were not on his mind.

“It’s not something you think about at 5–4 serving,” he said. “I had other thoughts in my mind. Basically, I didn’t want to fall over in the match. No, it’s not something I think about.”

While Zverev backed his own physical resilience, he conceded that Alcaraz ultimately had more left in the tank. “I know that he’s fit. I know that he’s very, very strong and hard to beat in long matches,” he said. “I always feel like on the physical side I’m quite OK as well. In the end, of course, I was a bit more tired than him.”

That made Alcaraz’s recovery in the fifth set all the more impressive in Zverev’s eyes. “He took like an hour and a half off where he wasn’t moving almost at all,” Zverev said. “Maybe I should have used that better in a way. Maybe I should have won the games and won the sets a bit quicker, and 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.”

Emotionally, Zverev admitted he was too drained to fully process the defeat, but he struck an optimistic tone about what lies ahead in 2026. “I think I’m way too tired to have emotions right now,” he said. “In two days’ time, I’ll probably have more. But right now, I’m just exhausted. I think we both went through our absolute limits.

“Somewhat, I’m also proud of myself, the way I was hanging on and came back from two sets to love. Of course, it’s disappointing. But this is the start of the year. If I continue playing that way, if I continue training the way I train, if I continue working on the things that I’ve been working on in the off-season, I do believe it’s going to be a good year for me.”