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Alexander Zverev, right, of Germany embraces Novak Djokovic of Serbia after Djokovic retired in their semifinal match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake).
Novak Djokovic withdrew from his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev due to injury in a shocking twist at Melbourne Park.
Djokovic sustained a muscular injury in his titanic tussle with Carlos Alcaraz earlier this week, and came onto the court at Rod Laver Arena on Friday with heavy strapping around his left leg.
He appeared to seize up towards the end of the first set, which lasted 81 minutes and needed a tiebreak to be decided, with Zverev taking a 7-6 (7-5) lead when Djokovic sliced a volley into the net from close range.
Djokovic immediately approached and embraced Zverev before turning to the umpire to withdraw. Some sections of the support began to jeer the 10-time champion as he made his way off court.
The 37-year-old had squandered three break points while fending off five before he conceded.
Zverev, who is searching for his maiden major title, is into his first Australian Open final, and will face either Ben Shelton or defending champion Jannik Sinner.
Data Debrief: Despair for Djokovic
Aiming to win his 100th Australian Open match, Djokovic could just not last.
This marks only the second time he has retired from a match at the major, after conceding to Andy Roddick in the 2009 quarter-final. Indeed, Djokovic had last retired from a grand slam match back in 2019, against Stan Wawrinka at the 2019 US Open.
It makes Zverev only the second male player in the Open Era to have both won and lost a grand slam semi-final via retirement, after Rafael Nadal - one of whose wins came against the German at the 2022 French Open.
This is only the fourth men's singles semi-final to be decided via retirement at the Australian Open in the Open Era after 1970 (Arthur Ashe-Dennis Ralston), 1995 (Andre Agassi-Aaron Krickstein) and 2018 (Roger Federer-Hyeon Chung).
