Zverev recovers from vomitting to progress at Halle
Alexander Zverev had to leave the court to vomit after just one game of his quarter-final clash against Flavio Cobolli at Halle, but returned to see off the Italian 6-4 7-6 (8-6) and move into the semi-finals on the grass in Germany.
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Zverev had to rush from the court for an impromptu toilet break at 1-0, 40/40 in the first set, butmanaged to win in one-hour and 41 minutes to the relief and delight of his home crowd.
“I felt fine before the match, and then out of nowhere I felt really, really bad and felt ill,” Zverev explained after his win.
“I went to throw up, and then 15 minutes later I felt OK again. So I don’t know what it was. I’ve never experienced that before, to be honest. Hopefully I will be fine the next couple of hours, when the adrenalin settles. After that, I think it was a pretty good match.”
Zverev let out a burst of emotion after firing a big first serve, which Cobolli was unable to return, to clinch his win in the second-set tie-break.
The No.2 seed is now 21-8 at Halle, where he reached the fina in 2016 and 2017. He is also now only the fifth player to reach five or more semi-finals at the event after former champions Roger Federer, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tommy Haas.
A finalist in Stuttgart last week, Zverev will now aim to earn back-to-back final appearances on grass when he faces one of his oldest rivals in the semi-finals, Daniil Medvedev.
