Djokovic Forced to Retire Due to Injury at Australian Open, Zverev Moves on to Final
The 37-year-old mentioned that his current injury was reminiscent of the hamstring injury he dealt with while securing his 10th Open title two years ago.
Ten-time champion Novak Djokovic has shockingly pulled out of the Australian Open after a grueling first set in his semi-final against second seed Alexander Zverev.
Following a tiebreaker loss in the set after one hour and 21 minutes on Jan. 24, Djokovic immediately approached the chair umpire to announce his inability to continue.
After sustaining an injury in his quarter-final triumph over Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday night, Djokovic had his left thigh heavily bandaged for the match against Zverev.
Although Djokovic hinted at skipping usual practice sessions before facing Zverev, he refrained from disclosing the specifics of his injury, apart from mentioning its similarity to the hamstring issue he dealt with during his 10th Open victory two years ago.
Zverev advanced to his first Australian Open final after Djokovic quit following a 7-5 tiebreaker defeat, marking the third grand slam title match in his career.
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The world No.2 previously lost the 2020 US Open final to Dominic Thiem and last year’s French Open final to Alcaraz.
Djokovic was aiming to secure his unprecedented 25th grand slam singles title at Melbourne Park, tying with Margaret Court at 24 since the 2023 US Open.
Zverev will face the winner of Friday night’s second semi-final between Italy’s top-ranked titleholder Jannik Sinner and American world No.20 Ben Shelton.
The German expressed his condolences to Djokovic and encouraged the Rod Laver Arena audience to show respect to the tennis legend.
“I know that everybody paid for tickets and everybody wants to see hopefully a great five-set match and everything but you’ve got to understand,” Zverev stated.
“Novak Djokovic is somebody who has given this sport for the past 20 years absolute everything of his life.
“He has won this tournament with an abdominal tear. He has won this tournament with a hamstring tear. If he cannot continue a tennis match, it really means he cannot continue a tennis match.
“So, please be respectful and really, really show some love for Novak as well.”
Djokovic mentioned that he might have continued playing had he won the first set but acknowledged his inability to sustain a four or five-hour match.
“I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set,” Zverev remarked.
“But, I mean like, of course, there are some difficulties and the longer you continue playing then maybe the worse it gets.
“In the tiebreak, maybe he was not moving as well as in the entire first set but I thought we had extremely long rallies, extremely difficult, physical also rallies.
“In the tiebreak, I did see him struggle maybe a bit more.”
