German tennis player Alexander Zverev said on Friday his plane was hit by lightning on the way to Paris for the French Open and had to turn around, delaying his arrival for the clay-court Grand Slam tournament.
He wound up getting in at about 3 a.m.
“We were supposed to fly yesterday evening at 6:45 p.m., and we took off from Hamburg,” said Zverev, last year’s runner-up at Roland-Garros and seeded No. 3 this year. “We got struck by lightning. We had to do an emergency landing back in Hamburg.”
By the time he got on a different flight, his journey resumed at 1 a.m.
Zverev is scheduled to face Learner Tien of the United States in the first round on Sunday.
Despite the initial mid-air scare, Zverev described the episode as basically uneventful.
“It made a little noise — no real wobbling or anything,” he said. “It was a first-time experience.”
He said Czech player Jiri Lehecka and American Brandon Nakashima were also on board.
Zverev lost his match at the German Open in Hamburg on Wednesday and said he was feeling ill.
“I think everybody that knows tennis saw I wasn’t at 100 per cent,” he said on Friday.