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‘I just said it was bulls**t’: Alexander Zverev slams officials for allowing Carlos Alcaraz time-out for cramping during AUS Open semifinal

Zverev was ‌serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set of Friday's semi-final but Alcaraz won the next three games to leave the German ‌with another near-miss at the Grand Slams.

3 min readUpdated: Jan 30, 2026 05:59 PM IST

Alexander Zverev of Germany plays a backhand return to Carlos Alcaraz of Spain during their semifinal match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Alexander Zverev who lost the Australian Open semifinal against Carlos Alcaraz on Friday, slammed officials for allowing his opponent to take a medical time-out for a leg problem. Alcaraz was struggling to move at 4-4 in the third set and was allowed treatment on his right thigh at the change of ends, which did not sit well with Zverev who was even saying “bulls**t” during the incident.

“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. I just said it was bulls**t, basically,” Zverev said in the post-match press conference.

“He took like an hour and a half off where he wasn’t moving almost at all. So again, maybe I should have used that better in a 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.

Zverev was asked about Carlos Alcaraz’s medical time out while cramping during their match at the Australian Open

Zverev: “He was cramping. 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… pic.twitter.com/ilt50Em1m5

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 30, 2026

Runner-up to Jannik Sinner last year, Zverev was ‌serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set of Friday’s semi-final but Alcaraz won the next three games to leave the German ‌with another near-miss at the Grand Slams.

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Still chasing an elusive first major title, Zverev said he had more regrets about dropping the second set than ‌his surrender in the ‍fifth.

“I was hanging ⁠on for dear life, to be honest. I was exhausted,” he said, rating the match as probably the toughest physically of his career.

“I think ⁠we both went to our absolute limits, so 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, so 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 ‌in the offseason, I do believe it’s going to be a good year for me.”