Ten-time champion Novak Djokovic has sensationally withdrawn from the Australian Open after losing a marathon first set of his semi-final against second seed Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic walked immediately to the chair umpire to say he could not go on after dropping the set in a tiebreaker after one hour and 21 minutes on Jan. 24
The former world No.1 again had his left thigh heavily strapped after hurting himself in his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday night.
Djokovic said then he would likely have to skip routine practice before playing Zverev, but declined to reveal the exact details of his injury.
The 37-year-old did, however, say it was similar to the hamstring injury he nursed while winning his 10th Open title two years ago.
Zverev’s victory, which came when Djokovic quit after losing the tiebreaker 7-5, propelled the 27-year-old German into his maiden Australian Open final, and the third grand slam title match of his career.
The world No.2 lost the 2020 US Open final to Dominic Thiem as well as last year’s French Open decider to Alcaraz.
Djokovic had been bidding to win an unprecedented 25th grand slam singles crown at Melbourne Park, having been level with Margaret Court on 24 since the 2023 US Open.
Zverev will play 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 offered his sympathy to Djokovic and urged the Rod Laver Arena crowd to show respect towards the living 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 said.
“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 said he may have played on had he won the first set, but conceded he could not have carried on for four or five hours.
“I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set,” Zverev said.
“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.”
