Melbourne,jan 24
After an injury forced him to retire from the semifinals of the Australia Open on Friday, Serbian tennis icon Novak Djokovic revealed that he had suffered an unspecified muscle tear which caused him to end his journey in the tournament on a heartbreaking note.
Germany’s Alexander Zverev cruised to the final of the ongoing Australia Open 2025 in the men’s singles category after Djokovic, retired from the semi-final clash after suffering an injury on Friday. This has put an end to Djokovic’s campaign in the most disappointing possible, denying him a chance at a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title, his 11th Australian Open title and a century of ATP Tour Level titles.
Djokovic, struggling with the injury from the outset, managed to hold his ground against Zverev for around 90 minutes in the first set. The opening set went to a tie-break which the German player went on to win with a scoreline of 7-6.
At 1-2, 0/40, Djokovic created three break points and fought off five break points total in the first set, before the Serbian scored a standard volley with the court open in the last point, the tie-break was all on serve.
Speaking after the match as quoted by ATP’s official website, Djokovic said that he had not hit a ball since his quarterfinal match against Carlos Alcaraz.
“I did everything I possibly can to basically manage the muscle tear that I had. Medications and, I guess, the strap, and the physio work helped to some extent today. But yeah, 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,” said Djokovic.
