'We got struck by lightning': Alexander Zverev details wild mid-air scare in route to Roland Garros

Alexander Zverev recounted a rather peculiar experience he had with fellow players Brandon Nakashima and Jiri Lehecka on their trip from Hamburg to the French Open. The world No. 3 spoke about an emergency landing he had to make in Hamburg, which delayed his arrival in France.

The German played in the ATP 500 Hamburg Open this week, where he was the top seed, but ended up losing in the second round to Alexandre Muller, suffering another disappointment amidst a period of inconsistent form over the past few months.

After finishing his participation in the tournament, the three-time Grand Slam runner-up traveled to Paris to prepare for his Roland Garros campaign. He explained that he was flying with some of his colleagues who had been eliminated early in Hamburg, like Brandon Nakashima (eliminated in the second round) and Jiri Lehecka (eliminated in the third round).

"We were supposed to fly yesterday evening at 6:45 p.m., and we took off from Hamburg, and we were flying with Lehecka, Nakashima, and some doubles players, and we got struck by lightning, funny enough."

"We had to do an emergency landing back in Hamburg, couldn't find another plane. I took another plane around 1 a.m., arrived in Paris around 3 a.m. First time experience getting struck by lightning mid-air, which is funny. It was a little noise, no real wobbling, nothing. So that was my trip over here."

The German has already learned his first-round opponent: 19-year-old Learner Tien, who is ready to continue making strides on Tour. The finalist of the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals is one of the young talents who has performed best in the last year, and he actually beat Zverev himself a few months ago at the Mexican Open.