Alexander Zverev qualifies Australian Open final after Djokovic retires

Alexander Zverev qualified for his third Grand Slam final after Novak Djokovic decided to retire, playing only one set in the semifinal clash at the Rod Laver Arena on Friday. The German won the opening set in the tiebreaker by 7-5 as Djokovic decided to shake hands.

Both players had their chances to break each other’s serve but they were able to keep their service intact as the opening set lasted for almost one and a half hours. 

But when the Serbian decided to retire, he was booed by the Australian crowd, which didn’t impress Zverev.

“I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set,” Zverev said when asked by Jim Courier if he noticed his opponent’s struggles. “But of course there is some difficulties and the longer you continue playing, then maybe the worse it gets. In the tie-break, he was maybe not moving as well as in the entire first set. But I thought we had extremely long rallies, extremely difficult, physical rallies. In the tie-break I did see him struggle maybe a bit more.”

Later, Djokovic revealed he suffered a muscle tear in his leg and thus he could not continue despite help from the medical staff.

“I did everything I possibly can to basically manage the muscle tear that I had,” Djokovic said after his bid for a 25th Grand Slam title and 100th tour-level singles trophy came to an abrupt end. “Medications and, I guess, the strap, and the physio work helped to some extent today. But towards the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain. It was too much, I guess, to handle for me at the moment.

“Yeah, unfortunate ending, but I tried.”

The German revealed that he wanted to bring his best to the court despite knowing that Djokovic was carrying an injury.

“Not against Novak, to be honest,” he said. “I played him here in 2021 when he had an abdominal tear. and he served 28 aces against me. I have to play 100 per cent.

“I played probably one of my best sets of the tournament now with the first set, and I won 7/5 in the tie-break while he was injured. I don’t know, maybe I’m not that good, maybe Novak is too good for the sport. I don’t know what to say,” he joked.

Zverev will either face Jannik Sinner or Ben Shelton in the summit clash on Sunday.