It was the controversy before a classic broke out.
Alex Zverev fumed at an Australian Open official for allowing Carlos Alcaraz to have a medical timeout for what he believed was cramping during the third set of their semifinal matchup, which Alcaraz ultimately won in five sets.
Alcaraz was rubbing the inside of his right thigh and was visibly hampered on the court at times.
Medical timeouts are not allowed just for cramping issues, though.
Zverev could be heard calling the decision “f–king bulls–t” to the official during a mostly German-spoken rant.
Warning: Graphic Language
“He was cramping,” Zverev told reporters afterward. “Normally, you can’t take a medical timeout for cramping. But what can I do? It’s not my decision. I didn’t like it, but it’s not my decision.”
Alcaraz said he “didn’t think it was cramps at all at the beginning … didn’t know exactly what it was.”
The Spaniard said he just explained the issue he was dealing with to the trainer and it was their decision to call the timeout.
“The left leg was good. Not good but decent,” Alcaraz said. “After that, with all the stress, I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know if it was going to be worse or not.”
At that point, Alcaraz led two sets to none and was up 5-4 in the third set — one game from reaching the Australian Open final.
Zverev furiously rallied from there, taking the third and fourth sets in tiebreakers. More than four hours had elapsed when the match went to a fifth set — the first five-setter on the center court in 2026.
Alcaraz dropped serve in the opening game but hung with Zverev, getting five breakpoint chances without being able to convert.
The third-seeded Zverev served for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set before Alcaraz finally broke back and then took the final two games to claim the five-hour, 27-minute epic.
“To be honest it was 17 hours ago,” Zverev, who lost to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open finals last year, said of the controversy.
“I don’t quite remember. 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. I think this is one of the best battles there ever was in Australia. It doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”
Alcaraz will now face the winner of the Sinner-Novak Djokovic semifinal Sunday morning.
— With AP
