Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz beat Germany’s Alexander Zverev over five hours but the latter is upset by officiating of injury.Published On 30 Jan 202630 Jan 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareAlexander Zverev condemned officials for allowing Carlos Alcaraz a medical timeout for a leg problem after falling in an epic five-setter to the Spaniard in the Australian Open’s longest semifinal.World number one Alcaraz was struggling to move at 4-4 in the third set on Friday and was allowed treatment on his right thigh at the change of ends, leaving the German incensed.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listWhile Alcaraz said post-match that he worried he may have strained an adductor muscle, Zverev was adamant the Spaniard’s problem was cramp, which is out of bounds for medical timeouts.Alcaraz dropped the next two sets but was back running at full pelt in the fifth to close out an epic 6-4 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-7(4) 7-5 win in five hours and 27 minutes.“Yeah, I mean, he was cramping, so normally you can’t take a medical timeout for cramping,” third seed Zverev said at his post-match news conference.“What can I do? It’s not my decision. I didn’t like it, but it’s not my decision.”On court, Zverev lashed out at a match supervisor in profanity-laden German as Alcaraz underwent treatment.“I just said it was b******t, basically,” he said later of the exchange, noting that Alcaraz finished full of running.“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.” Carlos Alcaraz, left, of Spain, and Alexander Zverev, right, of Germany, react after the former’s victory in the Men’s Singles semifinal [Clive Brunskill/Getty Images]Alcaraz admits his body could be better ahead of Australian Open finalWhen asked whether he was injured, Alcaraz …
