Tennis star Alexander Zverev has revealed how his plane was forced to make an emergency landing after being struck by lightning en route to the French Open.
Zverev, 28, who is seeded third at Roland-Garros this year, described the hair-raising incident during a press conference ahead of Sunday’s tournament start.
The German said: “My trip over was phenomenal, actually... Some funny stories there.
“My trip here was funny because we were supposed to fly yesterday evening at 6.45pm.
“We took off from Hamburg and we were flying together with [Jiri] Lehecka, [Brandon] Nakashima, some doubles guys – and we got struck by lightning.
“So we had to do an emergency landing back in Hamburg. Couldn’t find another plane, so everybody else flew the next morning.
“I took another plane and flew around 1am, so I arrived here at 3am.
“So that was quite funny. It was the first time [in my] experience [that a plane was] struck by lightning mid-air, which is funny because it was a little noise, no real wobbling, nothing, but yeah.
“So that was my trip over. Best story of Roland-Garros so far.”
The world’s top players have descended on Paris for the second Grand Slam of the year, with defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz aiming to retain his title on Court Philippe-Chatrier. Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek — dubbed the ‘Queen of Clay’ — is looking to bounce back from a recent dip in form.
Novak Djokovic, the three-time champion at Roland Garros, will be without Sir Andy Murray in his corner after the pair ended their coaching experiment just six months into their partnership.
World no1 Jannik Sinner plays in his first Slam since his doping ban following the Australian Open, where the Italian successfully defended his crown.
On the women’s side, former US Open champion Emma Raducanu is looking to re-discover her winning form after a mixed clay-court swing so far. She will play Chinese player Wang Xinyu, who she has a 0-1 record against. Wang stunned Raducanu in a three-set thriller in Linz back in 2021, when Raducanu was the top seed.
