2 days Ago By Ben Smith
Men’s world no.2 Alexander Zverev’s Australian Open preparations have suffered a blow, with the German forced to withdraw from Germany’s United Cup quarter-final against Kazakhstan at RAC Arena. Zverev was expected to take the court to face world no.
78 Alexander Shevchenko to keep Germany in the tie following Elena Ryabkina’s straight sets win over Laura Siegemund this morning. But the dual grand slam finalist’s withdrawal was announced just moments before he was due to start his match against Shevchenko, with the official United Cup X account posting his departure was due to a biceps strain. Zverev’s absence is a blow to Germany’s hopes of retaining the United Cup, having won both his singles matches in Perth.
Earlier in the tournament, Zverev revealed he had not served much since the season-ending tour finals in November due to an elbow issue. Late in the third set of his victory over China’s Zhizhen Zhang on Monday, Zverev could be seen stretching out and favouring his right arm slightly. He said after the match he believed the balls were partly to blame for his arm issues.
Ben Smith Murray Wenzel “I’m working on it every day. It’s just what it is,” he said. “The balls are not helping; they’re dead, but we’ve been having this discussion for I don’t know how long.
“A lot of players I think nowadays have elbow issues and wrist issues because of that subject, which wasn’t the case maybe 15, 20 years ago, or 10 years ago, even when I started.” In Zverev’s stead, world no.254 Daniel Masur has replaced him in the singles clash against Kazakhstan.
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