Alexander Zverev won’t feature at this week’s China Open with the world No 2 revealing the reason behind his recent “physical difficulties”.
Just weeks after losing against Taylor Fritz in the quarter-final of the US Open, Zverev suffered another defeat at the hands of the American in his opening singles rubber at the Laver Cup on Saturday. That loss came just a day after he and Carlos Alcaraz were beaten in the doubles by Fritz and Ben Shelton.
Zverev, though, made amends on the final day of action as he defeated Frances Tiafoe in a final set tie-breaker to help steer Team Europe to a 13-11 victory over Team World.
But it was clear for all that Zverev was not at his best during the tournament and he has confirmed he has pneumonia.
“Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with pneumonia, which explains the physical difficulties I’ve had in recent months,” the 27-year-old told the Deutschen Presse-Agentur.
He added: “I have to take care of my health first so that I can compete again as soon as possible.”
Zverev was due to be the second seed at the China Open, but his withdrawal was confirmed ahead of the draw on Tuesday. The German was replaced by Miomir Kecmanovic at the ATP 500 event in Beijing.
“I am very disappointed that I had to withdraw from the China Open. I will miss my Chinese fans in Beijing and hope to be able to play in front of them again soon,” he said.
Zverev will drop 170 ranking points after the tournament and, with Carlos Alcaraz 195 points behind him in third place, the Spaniard will have an opportunity to move ahead of him although he will need to reach at least the final.
His next event is set to be the Shanghai Masters, but it remains to be seen if he will be healthy enough to compete at the ATP Masters 1000 event, which gets underway on October 2.
Last year he lost in the second round against Roman Safiullin.
As for the remainder of the year, he has 90 points to defend at the Vienna Open and will drop another 90 points at the Paris Masters while he earned 400 points at least year’s ATP Finals.
The German has already qualified for the 2204 edition of the season-ending event in Turin as he has won one title this year, the Italian Open in May, and finished runner-up to Alcaraz at the French Open while he was also a runner-up at the German Open.
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