Alexander “Sascha” Zverev pulled out from the 2022 US Open citing an ankle injury.
Zverev played his last tournament in Roland Garros 2022. In the semi-finals of the French Open against Rafael Nadal, the 25-years-old suffered a grievous ankle injury that immediately made him bow out of the tournament.
Sascha had to undergo surgery to fix three of his torn ligaments. Later, he opted out of both grass court and North-American hard courts seasons, hoping to get injury-free for the final grand slam of the year.
The 2022 US Open is scheduled to start on the 31st of August. With the tournament only a week away, speculation about Zverev’s possible withdrawal was circulating in the tennis media. Today, tournament organizers confirmed the withdrawal of world no. 2. Stefan Kozlov will fill his spot in the main draw of the 2022 US Open.
Alexander Zverev has withdrawn from the US Open.
Get well soon, Alex! pic.twitter.com/Yj12xO0mNl
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 22, 2022
Earlier in an interview with Bild, Zverev stated that he will not be coming back until is sure of winning. With some more rest, it is likely that he will return in the middle or late September to represent his country in the Davis Cup hosted by Germany.
Alexander Zverev is considered one of the next big tennis stars after the “Big 4”. He is yet to win a grand slam title. However, the German does have five ATP Masters 1000, along with two ATP Finals under his belt. His best success in grand-slam came in 2020 when he lost in the finals of the US Open. With this withdrawal, he will have to wait for his next try to win a grand slam till the 2023 Australian Open.
