PARIS (AP) — German tennis player Alexander Zverev said Friday his plane was hit 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%," he said Friday.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Germany's Alexander Zverev reacts during his match against France's Alexandre Muller in their round of 16 tennis match of the Hamburg tournament against, in Hamburg, Germany, Wednesday May 21, 2025. (Frank Molter/dpa via AP)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
