Last year, German tennis player Alexander Zverev made the final of the French Open. This year, Zverev will have to see if lightning strikes twice — literally.
Ahead of the French Open, Zverev told reporters during media availability on Friday that his plane to Paris was struck by lightning, and was forced to turn around.
"We were supposed to fly yesterday evening at 6:45 p.m., and we took off from Hamburg," Zverev said, via the Associated Press. "We got struck by lightning. We had to do an emergency landing back in Hamburg."
The unexpected shock resulted in him arriving in France hours later than expected. The 28-year-old German switched planes at around 1 a.m., and didn't get in to Paris until around 3 a.m. He was able to attend a practice session at Roland Garros on Friday.
Per Zverev, Czech player Jiri Lehecka and American Brandon Nakashima, the No. 28 seed, were also on the plane.
When describing the incident, Zverev said that, other than the travel delay, the lightning strike was largely uneventful.
"It made a little noise — no real wobbling or anything," Zverev said. "It was a first-time experience."
For the French Open, Zverev seeded at No. 3, sitting behind Italian Jannik Sinner and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. The German is coming off a tough loss in the Hamburg Open, falling to French player Alexandre Müller in a third-set tiebreaker in the Round of 16.
Zverev is set to play his first matches of the tournament on Sunday, going up against 19-year-old American Learner Tien — who beat Zverev in straight sets at the Mexican Open in Feburary — in the first round.
