Novak Djokovic earned the wrath of the Australian Open crowd after retiring during his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic, 37, was forced to withdraw after the first set of his match against Zverev, 27, on Thursday, January 23, unable to continue due to a muscle tear in his left leg. Zverev had secured the lengthy 81-minute first set in a tiebreak.
In response, the crowd at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena booed Djokovic as he left the court. The 24-time Major champion gave two thumbs up to the fans as he made his way to the locker room.
Djokovic sustained the injury during the opening set of his quarterfinal victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, January 21.
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Zverev — who advanced to face defending champion Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open men’s final on Sunday, January 26 — did not take kindly to the crowd’s treatment of his opponent.
“The very first thing I want to say is, please, guys, don’t boo a player when he goes out with injury,” Zverev said in his post-match interview on court. “I know that everybody paid for tickets and wants to see, hopefully, a five-set match. He has won this tournament with an abdominal tear, won this tournament with a hamstring injury. So please show some respect.”
During his own press conference with reporters after his withdrawal, Djokovic said, “I did everything I possibly can to manage the muscle tear that I had.”
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“Medications and 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,” he continued. “It was getting worse and worse. It was just too much to handle for me at the moment.”
Djokovic added, “I knew even if I won the first set it was going to be a huge uphill battle for me to stay physically fit enough to stay with him in the rallies for another, god knows, two, three, four hours. I don’t think I had that, unfortunately, today in the tank. Unfortunate ending, but I tried.”
The tennis star was seeking to extend his record by winning his 11th Australian Open title. No other men’s player has won more than 6.
Djokovic holds the record for most Major titles won by a men’s player with 24. Retired stars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are second and third on the list with 22 and 20 Major titles, respectively.
