Cramping row in Alcaraz’s epic five-set victory over Zverev at Australian Open

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Cramping row in Alcaraz’s epic five-set victory over Zverev at Australian Open
Carlos Alcaraz collapses to the floor after his epic five-set victory over Alexander Zverev
Carlos Alcaraz collapsed to the floor after his epic five-set victory over Alexander Zverev – Reuters/Jaimi Joy

Carlos Alcaraz survived a crippling bout of cramps – and earned accusations of preferential treatment – as he won one of the most dramatic matches ever played at the Australian Open.

Alcaraz’s 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5 victory over Alexander Zverev lasted five hours and 27 minutes, and matched anything that Melbourne Park has ever produced for tension.

It also found Zverev fulminating over the officials’ controversial decision to allow Alcaraz to receive a medical time-out after his right leg locked up at 4-4 in the third set.

“He has cramp!” Zverev said, in a tirade at supervisor Andreas Egli which moved between English and German. “He can’t take a medical, he is cramping. What else should it be? This is absolute bulls—. This is unbelievable. Cramps? What the f— is that? You cannot be serious.”

Later, Zverev began suggesting that the game’s two pre-eminent male players – Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner – are benefiting from preferential treatment. “You are protecting both of them,” he said, before echoing John McEnroe’s most famous line from a previous generation. “This is unbelievable. This is not possible. You cannot be serious.”

If the fans on Rod Laver Arena did not seem to agree with Zverev, that maybe because these two men stand at opposite ends of the popularity rankings. Alcaraz is comfortably the most beloved man in the modern game – a worthy successor to Roger Federer, thanks to his combination of cuddly demeanour and explosive strokeplay. Whereas Zverev has long been the problem relative at the tennis table, the uncle no one wants to invite to Christmas.

According to the rulebook, Zverev had a point. You are not supposed to receive medical treatment for a loss of physical condition – which is what cramps effectively are. So when Alcaraz received a massage from the trainer on both his thighs, he was benefiting from a rule that is supposed to be used for athletes who have suffered an acute injury.

On the other hand, common usage tends to suggest that crampees often get away with calling for medical attention. It is a grey area, and when such grey areas arise, the most successful players tend to be indulged.

Commentating on TNT Sports, Boris Becker said: “Anyone would have freaked out in that situation. He [Zverev] was the winner at that moment. If Alcaraz had continued playing, he wouldn’t have been able to do it. But Alcaraz is a clever lad, he says he has a slight twinge and is then allowed to take an injury time-out. The umpire and the chair umpire can’t know that.

“Sascha [Zverev] believes that Sinner and Alcaraz are protected in such cases. We should keep an eye on what the rules are for Sinner and Alcaraz and how they differ from those for the rest of the players.”

It was not a ferociously hot day in Melbourne, reaching only 30 degrees, but high humidity levels made it an unusually sweaty one. And Alcaraz has previous when it comes to catastrophic cramping in major semi-finals. He famously locked up in the calf in the third set of his meeting with Novak Djokovic at the 2023 French Open.

Towards the end of this third set, Alcaraz could barely move around the court, or serve with anything more than a gentle push. But he swigged pickle juice, just like Sinner in a similar situation against Eliot Spizzirri on the middle Saturday, and his legs gradually began to recover their usual elasticity.

Zverev managed to snatch the third and fourth sets on tie-breaks. But when he led by a break for almost the entirety of the deciding set, Rod Laver Arena did not hold back in expressing its partisan support. As in a Hollywood movie, the odds were against the hero throughout nine-tenths of the final act.

Alcaraz had by now recovered his usual lickety-split movement. Yet even as he carved out chance after chance to level the scoreline, he kept missing the clinched stroke. As five break points slipped by, he was like a man tied to the railway tracks with the wheels bearing down ever closer.

Increasingly, though, it was Zverev who looked on the point of collapse. He lumbered stiff-legged through his service games, only surviving through willpower and his siege-gun serve, which somehow retained its punch when everything else began to fail him. But at the final time of asking, as he served at 5-4, Zverev was finally beaten by a laser-guided passing shot. In that moment, you could almost see the air ebb from his lungs.

Having broken serve for the first time in almost four hours, Alcaraz turned to the crowd in exaltation. He knew that the hard bit was done. And it would take him only seven more minutes to break again, sealing the victory with one more forehand pass that Zverev couldn’t handle.

Asked by on-court interviewer Jim Courier how he had pulled off this comeback, Alcaraz replied: “Believing. Believing, all the time. I always say you have to believe in yourself, no matter whether you’re suffering, whatever you’ve been through.”

“Physically, it was one of the most demanding matches I have ever played in my short career,” added Alcaraz, who extended his extraordinary record in five-set matches to 15 wins and just a single defeat. “But I have been in this kind of situation, I’ve been in these kind of matches before. I had to put my heart into the match. I fought until the last ball. I knew I was going to have my chances. It was passion. I am extremely proud of the way I fought and the way I played the fifth set.”

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