In a stunning development at the Australian Open, injured Novak Djokovic withdrew after losing the first set of his semi-final match against Alexander Zverev.
Zverev won a tough first set in a 7-6 tiebreaker that lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. Djokovic decided that he could not continue with the left leg injury that had been holding him back during the match.
As soon as the set ended, Djokovic acknowledged the match with a thumbs up. Zverev and the crowd at Rod Larver Arena were plagued with disbelief.
“Please, guys – don’t boo players when they go out with injuries,” Zverev said on court in a post-game interview.
“Everyone knows they paid for the ticket and everyone wants to see a great five-set match. But you know for the last 20 years Novak Djokovic has given absolutely everything to tennis. You have to understand what you are giving,” he added. “He won this tournament with an abdominal tear, a hamstring tear. If he can’t continue in this match, it means he really can’t continue.”
Djokovic set the pace early in the match and appeared to control play, much to Zverev’s frustration. Injuries plagued him in the quarterfinals against Carlos Alcaraz, but it didn’t seem to matter, although he was unable to practice on Wednesday or Thursday before the match against Zverev. It definitely changed as the first set progressed.
“Until an hour before today’s match, I did everything I could to manage the muscle tear I had,” Djokovic told reporters afterward.
“Drugs and straps and period work helped to some extent today,” he continued. “But towards the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain and it was just too much for me to handle at the moment.
