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After recovering from two sets down Zverev was primed to take advantage of an injured and seemingly broken Alcaraz<\/a>, and make amends for previous collapses in the second weeks of grand slams.<\/p>\n Instead, one of the best players to have never won a slam walked off Rod Laver Arena knowing he had missed one of his best chances yet.<\/p>\n Zverev served for a spot in the final at 5-4 in the fifth set but lost four consecutive games to end the match. <\/p>\n But, as Aussie doubles legend Todd Woodbridge explained on commentary, it will only add to the pressure Zverev feels in future big matches.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a few scars there, the scar tissue is lurking,\u201d Todd Woodbridge said on Nine.<\/p>\n READ MORE <\/p>\n MARATHON MIRACLE: Carlos survives huge AO scare in 5-hr-27-min war for the ages<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018STRUGGLING\u2019: Alcaraz reveals brutal truth behind AO slogfest… and hilarious reply to shot at history<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018F***ING BULLS**T\u2019: Zverev BLOWS up at umpire after No.1\u2019s dramatic moment rocks AO<\/a><\/p>\n Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz greets Germany’s Alexander Zverev after winning their men’s singles semi-final match on day thirteen of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 30, 2026. (Photo by IZHAR KHAN \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n Most notably Zverev lost from two sets up in the 2020 US Open final when he and Dominic Thiem were both trying to win a first slam.<\/p>\n He also lost from two sets up in the 2024 Australian Open semi-finals.<\/p>\n Zverev was applauded for his sportsmanship after match point and, with some time to escape the immediate emotions, came into his press conference with a level head.<\/p>\n \u201cUnbelievable fight, battle,\u201d Zverev said post-match.<\/p>\n ‘F***ing Bulls***!” Zverev rages in Semi | 01:30<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunate ending for me but to be honest I had absolutely nothing left.<\/p>\n \u201cEven at 5-4 normally I can rely on my serve a bit more but my legs stopped pushing upwards, so yeah. This is life, you move on.\u201d<\/p>\n He was still frustrated by the handling of Alcaraz\u2019s medical timeout for cramping, believing it should not have been allowed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was cramping and you can\u2019t take a medical timeout for cramping. What can I do? I didn\u2019t like it, but it\u2019s not my decision,\u201d Zverev said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just said it was bulls**t, basically.<\/p>\n \u201cBut to be honest I don\u2019t want to talk about this right now because it was one of the best battles there\u2019s ever been in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n However while frustrated with the loss Zverev said his biggest regret was dropping the second set, which he felt he should have won.<\/p>\n ZVEREV\u2019S NOTABLE SLAM DEFEATS<\/p>\n Up two sets in US Open 2020 final vs Dominic Thiem – 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6(6)<\/p>\n Up two sets in Australian Open 2024 semi-final vs Daniil Medvedev – 5-7 3-6 7-6(4) 7-6(5) 6-3<\/p>\n Up 2-1 in French Open 2024 final vs Carlos Alcaraz – 6-3 2-6 5-7 6-1 6-2<\/p>\n Recovered from 0-2 in Australian Open 2025 semi-final vs Carlos Alcaraz – 6-4 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-7(4) 7-5<\/p>\n Recovered from 0-2 in French Open 2021 semi-final vs Stefanos Tsitsipas – 6-3 6-3 4-6 4-6 6-3<\/p>\n Up two sets in Wimbledon 2024 fourth round vs Taylor Fritz – 4-6 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(3) 6-3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Zverev will be left with \u201cscar tissue\u201d after one of the most dramatic matches in Australian Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-447693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}