Alexander Zverev makes rare gesture before Canadian Open rival withdraws through injury

Top seed lAlexander Zverev made a rare gesture to Francisco Cerundolo before his opponent officially withdrew from their Canadian Open match. The German star was in control of the last-16 tie at 6-4 1-0 before the Argentine was forced to concede.

In the first set, Cerundolo took a medical timeout. He appeared to be treated for an abdominal issue, which had also hampered him in his previous match against Tomas Etcheverry. While he was struggling, Zverev took the time to speak at length with his rival about the issue.

The 28-year-old was leading 5-4 and about to serve for the first set when he made his way over to Cerundolo's chair. In an incident rarely seen with players between games, he spent around 20 seconds warmly speaking to Cerundolo before heading to the baseline.

The pair are known to be friends off court, and the conversation appeared respectful. Zverev then duly served out the set and broke in the opening game of the second before Cerundolo called it a day.

Having advanced, Zverev praised the injured star and explained his actions, saying: "He's an incredible player and he's an incredible person. I have a very good and close relationship with him.

"So I saw that he's extremely upset at 5-4, and I know that with an abdominal injury...you can't serve and you can't really accelerate on your forehand. I saw he had tears in his eyes and just wanted to talk to him."

Cerundolo later took to social media to apologise to organisers, writing on X: "I'm sorry @NBOtoronto. Try my best tonight but couldn't continue. Thanks to everyone for the support! Time to rest and recover."

Zverev will now face 18th seed Alexei Popyrin in the quarter-finals. Following the withdrawals of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, he began the tournament as the No.1 seed.