The Carlos Alcaraz vs. Alexander Zverev Australian Open semifinal on Friday afternoon pretty much had it all. Five sets, five hours, three tiebreakers, wild momentum swings, cramping, medical timeouts, expletive-filled arguments, and controversy.
What once looked like a routine win for Alcaraz took a serious turn when the world No. 1 started to suffer from apparent leg cramping midway through the third set. After holding serve for 5-4, he took a medical timeout — which is not allowed for cramping.
Here is what the Grand Slam rulebook states:
“A player may receive treatment for muscle cramping only during the time allotted for change of ends and/or set breaks. Players may not receive a medical timeout for muscle cramping. In cases where there is doubt about whether the player suffers from an acute medical condition, non-acute medical condition inclusive of muscle cramping, or non-treatable medical condition, the decision of the sports physiotherapist, in conjunction with the Tournament Doctor, if appropriate, is final.
“If the sports physiotherapist believes that the player has heat illness, and if muscle cramping is one of the manifestations of heat illness, then the muscle cramping may only be treated as part of the recommended treatment by the Sports Physiotherapist for the heat illness condition.”
There is, of course, a gray area with cramping. What if a player isn’t positive if it’s a cramp or an actual injury? What if they simply claim it’s a real injury even when he or she knows it’s a cramp? There’s no way to police that.
“A player who has stopped play by claiming an acute medical condition but is determined by the sports physiotherapist and/or tournament doctor to have muscle cramping, shall be ordered by the Chair Umpire to resume play immediately,” the rulebook continues.
Alcaraz eventually explained during his press conference that he was unsure of the exact problem. He also said that it was the physio who decided that he required a medical timeout.
“In the beginning it was on a specific muscle, so I didn’t think was cramp at all,” the 22-year-old commented. “So I didn’t know exactly what it was, because I just go around to a forehand and then I started to feel it just in the right adductor, so that’s why I just called the physio — because it was just that moment. The rest of the legs, the left leg was good. I mean not good, but decent.
“I didn’t know what’s going on; didn’t know if it’s going to [get] worse or not. 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…. I just told what happened to the physio, and he decided to take a medical.”
Understandably, Zverev wasn’t buying it.
“He has cramps,” he yelled in German at the supervisor. “What else should it be? This is absolute bullshit! That is unbelievable. That cannot be — you cannot be serious! You protect the both of them (referencing Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner). It’s unbelievable!”
Zverev was well within his right to complain. And Alcaraz did not break any rules — nor did he do anything we haven’t seen thousands of times in professional tennis — by taking a medical timeout.
Regardless, it’s really a whole lot of nothing — other than something to talk about between now and Sunday’s final between Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. After all, it had no bearing on the outcome of the match. Keep in mind that Alcaraz lost the the third set soon after the treatment. He also lost the fourth! His movement remained somewhere between limited and severely hampered until the fifth — several hours after the medical timeout.
And let’s also clear up the preposterous idea that Alcaraz almost decided to retire after the third game of the fourth set.
“No, no, no, no,” the Spaniard said at the beginning of his press conference. “I saw the video and I saw the people talking about it, but there wasn’t a single second that I thought about retiring.”
And it’s a good thing he didn’t, of course, as Alcaraz eventually prevailed 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-7(4), 7-5 from 5-3 down in the fifth set. He won after five hours and 27 minutes and will now face Djokovic, who upset Jannik Sinner in 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in four hours and nine minutes.
With little recovery time for both finalists following such grueling semis, it’s safe to assume that we could see multiple medical timeouts in Sunday’s final. Get ready.
he was never gonna retire
Both are phenomenal, wishing both of them good health and all the best. I however would want to go Alcaraz, he has matured at a tremendous rate, he can handle the fact that this is his first AO final, the crowd would not intimidate him because he is a crowd pleaser. He us also Djokovic’s junior so I think that after what they both went through during the semi’s Carlos would have more in the tank along with his craftiness and versatility. It’s going to be a blockbuster, but I still believe that the Serb will find it difficult to stand up to the Spanish bombardment. With them both good health.
Good explanation of what happened in Zv match….and, as you said, “much ado about nothing.”