LONDON: Alexander Zverev came dangerously close to crashing into the umpire's chair on Centre Court while reaching for a short ball in the Wimbledon third round against Briton Cameron Norrie. The fourth-seeded German, who went down in a nasty heap, fortunately used his hands to break the momentum of the fall midway through the second net.
Zverev appeared to twist his ankle, but rolled over clutching his knee, shouting in agony. The 27-year-old, who has been in exemplary form, dropping just 15 games across six sets, coming into the third round, picked himself up well after the fall even though his court coverage was slightly hampered and he twice required treatment.
Zverev, 6 ft 6', converted on his sixth match point of the tiebreak after saving five set points. As resilient as he was after the fall, it was Zverev's serving - not having faced a break-point in the match and having claimed 90 percent of points on his first serve - that won him the day. He put out the home hope Norrie 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (15).
"My knee went too straight. I overstretched it," Zverev said. "I do have pain right now. I will check it. I will see what the MRI says, but I personally don't think it can be anything too serious because I still played. Of course, I was limited in some of the movements."
For a moment Zverev's fall triggered images of two years ago when he was wheeled off Court Philippe Chatrier sobbing in pain, having broken his ankle. "If you're breaking a ligament or something else, the meniscus or something like that, I don't think you can continue playing even the way I did," he said. "We'll see what it is. Hopefully I'll be fine in two days' time."
Zverev, in the Round of 16 here for the third time, equaling his best Wimbledon result, had 15 aces in the match. "It's the shot I have worked on the most in my game," he said.
