Last year, German tennis player Alexander Zverev took the French Open final. This year, Zverev needs to see if the lightning strikes twice – figuratively.
Zverev told reporters on Friday when his flight to Paris was available for open media in France literally He was hit by lightning and forced to turn around.
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“We were supposed to fly at 6:45pm yesterday evening, so we took off from Hamburg,” Zverev said via the Associated Press. “We were hit by lightning. We had to make an emergency landing in Hamburg.”
An unexpected shock caused him to arrive in France several hours later than expected. The 28-year-old German switched his flight around 1am and did not go to Paris until around 3am.
Zverev said Czech players Jiri Lehekka, American Brandon Nakashima and Seed No. 28 were also on the plane.
When explaining the incident, Zverev said the lightning strike was almost uneventful besides delays in travel.
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“It made a bit of a fuss — there’s no real wobble,” Zverev said. “It was my first experience.”
Zverev is third seeded in the French Open behind Italian Jannik Sinner and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. The Germans suffered a tough loss at Hamburg’s open and fell to French player Alexandre Muller with a tiebreaker in the third set in the 16th round.
Zverev is scheduled to play his first French match on Sunday, facing 19-year-old American learner Tien, who defeated Zverev in a straight set at the Mexico Open in February.
