It was one of the strong images of the tournament.
Last Friday, during the semi-final of Roland-Garros against the Spanish legend Rafael Nadal, the German tennis player Alexander Zverev injured his ankle, forcing him to abandon the match at 7-6, 6- 6, crying.
On Tuesday evening on Instagram, the world number three announced that he had surgery for torn ligaments in his right ankle.
The 25-year-old hasn't said when he will be back on court but is expected to miss Wimbledon, which starts on June 27.
According to L'Equipe, he could be out between six and eight weeks.
“We all have our own journey in life.
It's part of mine, ”he wrote on the social network, whose account has nearly 1.8 million subscribers.
The post is accompanied by a photo of him giving a thumbs up from a hospital bed.
“Next week I will reach a career high of world number two, but this morning I had to have surgery.
After further examination in Germany, we received confirmation that the three lateral ligaments of my right ankle were torn,” he explained.
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A post shared by Alexander Zverev (@alexzverev123)
"To resume competition as quickly as possible, to ensure the proper healing of all the ligaments and to regain total stability of my ankle, surgery was the best choice", he added, before concluding: "My rehabilitation start now and I will do everything to come back stronger than ever!
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Although the holder of five Masters trophies including the Masters 1000 in Rome and Montreal in 2017 but also Madrid in 2018 and 2021, Alexander Zverev is still chasing his first Grand Slam title.
His best run remains that of the US Open in 2020, where he fell in the final to Dominic Thiem, after leading by two sets.