German tennis star Alexander Zverev will still have to wait for his return to the tennis court as he has picked up a new injury ahead of Davis Cup. Zverev has withdrawn from the Davis Cup finals group stage this week. Zverev hasn’t played tennis on the pro-circuit since tearing his ankle ligaments during the semifinal against Rafael Nadal at the French Open.
The 25-year-old had been named in Germany’s squad last month for the group matches but was later replaced by Yannick Hanfmann. The German team will start their Davis Cup campaign from September 13 to 18. In Group C, in Hamburg, Germany will take on France, Australia and Belgium. Other than Hanfmann, the German squad includes Michael Kohlmann (captain), Oscar Otte, Jan-Lennard Struff, Tim Puetz and Kevin Kraweitz.
While speaking about the injury to the Davis Cup website on Monday, Zverev said, “I am very disappointed to miss out on playing this week. It was a massive goal for me to play here because it is my hometown … but there is nothing I can do about it."
“I have a bone edema issue which causes me quite a lot of pain. I don’t know if it happened yesterday or not but yesterday in practice with Oscar (Otte) it got to the point where I couldn’t run or walk anymore. I subsequently found out that it was a bone edema, which means I won’t be able to participate here and it is not a question of days, it is more a question of weeks or most likely, even months," he continued.
The injury would hurt a lot more for Zverev as he was extremely excited about representing his country in a prestigious event like Davis Cup. He said, “Usually, tennis is an individual sport, but I know from a lot of colleagues that they really look forward to the Davis Cup week each year. We can finally spend some time together. We eat together, practise together and have fun – this is all part of it.”
Alexander Zverev was set to get ready to play the Korea Open in Seoul. But now that appearance could also be in doubt. Zverev was set to join fellow top-10 players like Casper Ruud and Cameron Norrie at the tournament from 23 September to 3 October.