[Image: The Tennis Gazette]
Poor Novak Djokovic was booed off the court by some Australian Open fans after being forced to retire due to an injury during his semi-final match against Alexander Zverev.
Having won more Australian Open titles than any other man in history, Djokovic was aiming for a record 11th title but decided to quit after losing the first set 7-6 (7-5) in 80 minutes.
The 37-year-old Serb’s upper left leg was heavily taped after injuring it in Tuesday’s quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz.
“I did everything I possibly could do to manage the muscle tear that I had. Towards the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain.”
“It was too much to handle for me.”
After smashing a volley into the net on set point, the seventh seed Djokovic immediately approached Zverev and shook his hand. He waved to the crowd and gave them a double thumbs up, but some of the Aussie fans were less sympathetic and boos rang out from the crowd as he walked off.
“I knew even if I won the first set, that it’s going to be a huge uphill battle for me to stay physically fit enough to stay with him in the rallies for two, three, four hours,” added Djokovic.
The second seed Zverev is still hoping to clinch his first Grand Slam title and will face either Italian top seed Jannik Sinner or American 21st seed Ben Shelton in Sunday’s final.
[Source: BBC]