Novak Djokovic faced criticism from the Australian Open crowd after retiring from his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev.
The 37-year-old Djokovic was forced to withdraw after the first set of his match against Zverev, 27, on Thursday, January 23, due to a muscle tear in his left leg. Zverev had claimed the first set in a tiebreak, which lasted 81 minutes.
As Djokovic exited the court at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, the crowd booed him, prompting the 24-time Major champion to give a two-thumbs-up gesture to the fans while heading to the locker room.
The injury occurred during the opening set of Djokovic’s quarterfinal victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, January 21. Zverev, who advanced to the final to face defending champion Jannik Sinner on Sunday, January 26, criticized the crowd’s response to Djokovic’s injury.
“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 on-court post-match interview. “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.”
In his own press conference following his withdrawal, Djokovic explained, “I did everything I possibly can to manage the muscle tear that I had.”
“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 aiming to secure his 11th Australian Open title, extending his own record. No other male player has won more than six titles at the tournament.
Djokovic also holds the record for the most Major titles by a men’s player with 24. Retired stars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are second and third, with 22 and 20 Major titles, respectively.