As at Roland-Garros, Novak Djokovic led the fight too much. Coming out victorious in his quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz at the cost of a huge battle against pain, the Serbian, injured in the thigh, was too weakened to hold a best-of-five-set match on Friday against Alexander Zverev in the semi-final. . Unlike his aborted quarter against Ruud in Paris, Nole tried his luck against the world No. 2, but had to resolve to give up after the loss of the first set (7-6 [7-5]).
“I did everything in my power to manage the muscle tear from which I suffer,” explained the 37-year-old Serbian, who was injured Wednesday in the quarter-final during his victory against Carlos Alcaraz (3rd). and immediately said he was “concerned”, without detailing the precise nature of his ailments.
Winning the first set wouldn't have changed much
“The medication, the treatment and the strap” which encircled his left thigh on Friday “helped, but towards the end of the first set I started to feel more and more pain, too difficult to manage”, and the “ Djoker”, in search of a record 25th Grand Slam title in Melbourne, therefore threw in the towel.
“If I had won” the first set, “I could have tried to play a few more games, maybe a set, I don’t know. But even if I had won the first set, it would have been a Homeric fight against pain. “I didn't have enough gas in the engine” to fight such a battle on Friday, Djokovic admitted.
-Djokovic's last appearance in Melbourne?
The ATP tournament in Doha (February 17 to 22, 2025) “is still on my program,” continued the former world number 1, who emphasized having experienced several “rapid recoveries” after previous injuries.
The Serbian “does not know” if the 2025 edition was his last participation in the Australian Open. “It’s a possibility, (but) I’ll have to see how the season goes,” he concluded.
