As Alexander Zverev slugged it out under the Madrid sun to defeat Taylor Fritz 6-4, 5-7, 6-7(0), 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals after three hours and a half on court yesterday afternoon, he played “on one leg”, as declared by himself.
That was apparently a revelation even to Fritz, who described the “match just seemed extremely normal” until he broke Zverev in Set 5 for a 4-6, 6 -7 (4), 6 -4,7 -3(3) win.
Knee trouble Zverev, the fourth seed from Germany, had damaged his left knee after a bad fall in round two and showed up on Centre Court sporting protective support Monday.
His post-match revelations were a bit of a head-scratcher, though when you consider Zverev then went on to pepper his Spanish opponent with regular 130 mph bullets — hitting 19 lightning-bolt-fueled aces and launching 55 waterfalls — the world-No.
