Leading by two sets, the Spaniard suffered physical problems and the German got angry. At the press conference, Sascha said: “Carlos had an hour and a half where he practically didn’t move. I should have taken advantage of that.”

A run-up, a lost point, a grimace, hands going to his sore right leg, bent over in pain. What’s going on? It’s 6-4, 7-6, 4-4, 15-30 in the Australian Open semifinal, Zverev is on the other side trying to make a comeback, and something is wrong with Alcaraz. His right leg isn’t responding, the world number one is limping, slowly returning to the middle of the court, taking longer than usual to serve. What’s going on with Carlos? The Spaniard goes to serve, 30-30, tries to stretch, looks around. Cramps? A strain? Illness? Meanwhile, another serve, but the Spaniard doesn’t jump, he plays from a standing position. Zverev is also confused, he doesn’t understand much, and it’s 5-4. However, according to the television, there had been some warning signs earlier.

Third set, we’re at 3-3 and Alcaraz is serving: the Spaniard approaches his bench and says, “I threw up, maybe I should take something, I don’t know, I have no energy.” The team encourages him to play, but two games later Carlitos is on his knees. Alcaraz calls a medical timeout, and from the corner they shout “hang in there, there’s still time”: after all, he’s two sets up. The other protagonist of the situation, Alexander Zverev, meanwhile, is furious and sees red. The German goes to the supervisor and shouts out his frustration: “It’s unbelievable that you can treat cramps, this is s***, it’s not fair,” adding a (very serious) “you are protecting these two guys, always, all the time,” referring not only to his rival Alcaraz, but also to Jannik Sinner. The Spaniard does not give up, he gets up, and from a standing position he manages to put Zverev in difficulty by hitting with all his might, without thinking too much about it. It goes to a tiebreak, Carlos’ serve is a problem, and Zverev is more lucid this time. Third set to the German.

Cramps— Will he retire? Will he not retire? Alcaraz is limping, but he doesn’t even think about retiring. He continues to have his right leg massaged, and then his left, reinforcing the cramp hypothesis, but by now it doesn’t matter. The Spaniard has decided to see this through to the end. Whatever happens. “I’m a little better, I feel a little better,” Carlos tells his bench, but on the court, the situation hasn’t changed much. Zverev has everything to lose, he knows it very well, but he is unable to put a truly clear strategy into play. Alcaraz hits one short ball after another, but the German takes too long to figure it out. Break points for Sasha, at 3-2, are canceled. Carlos tries to pump himself up, saying, “Come on, Charly, one step at a time.” It’s tiebreak time again. Alcaraz calls out to the crowd, which is going wild and cheering like crazy. Somehow, we’re at 6-6 in the fourth set. Alcaraz recovers a mini-break, scores three points in a row and goes 4-3 up. He is three points away from the match, from what would be a miracle. But it doesn’t happen. Zverev concentrates, scores four points in a row and it goes to the fifth set after more than four hours of play.
Comeback— Alcaraz falters, doesn’t give up, but takes the break right at the start of the set. It seems to be over, but Carlitos refuses to give up. At 2-1, Zverev serves, break point for Alcaraz from 40-0 for the German, second serve by Sasha, Alcaraz hits it long with his forehand, then earns another break point but hits it into the net. He lacks support and is starting to run out of energy. However, giving up is not part of Alcaraz’s game plan: at 3-2, Carlos wins another break point, responds well, but a cruel net sends the shot into the corridor during the rally. Alcaraz tries to play to the crowd, repeatedly putting his finger to his ear. It is now a battle, even if one of the two has blunt weapons. Rod Laver Arena now really looks like a Roman arena, and the Spaniard like a gladiator. The counterbreak finally comes when Zverev serves for the match at 5-3. Four games won in a row and Carlos triumphs.

at the press conference— The German then reiterated his thoughts at the post-match press conference: “He was having cramps, and normally you can’t ask for a medical timeout for cramps. But it’s not my decision. I didn’t like it, but it’s not up to me. I just said it was nonsense. He had an hour and a half where he practically didn’t move (smiles). Maybe I should have taken better advantage of it, winning games and sets more quickly. That way, he wouldn’t have had as much time to recover in the fifth. But the way he moved in the fifth set was incredible again.“ Sasha then said that theirs was ”an incredible battle. It was an unfortunate final for me, but to tell the truth, I had nothing left to give. Even at 5-4, I can usually count more on my serve, but my legs weren’t pushing me up anymore. That’s how it went, it’s part of life,“ said the world number 3. ”Honestly, I’m too tired to feel anything right now. Maybe in a couple of days I’ll feel more, but at the moment I’m just exhausted. I think we both reached our absolute limits, so I’m also proud of how I fought back from two sets down. Of course, it’s disappointing, but it’s only the beginning of the year. If I continue to play like this, train and work as I did in preparation, I think it will be a good season for me.”