Djokovic retires in Aus Open semi-final bombshell
Serbian champ Novak Djokovic has sensationally retired after losing a marathon first set in his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic announced he was quitting due to injury just minutes after losing Friday’s marathon first set at Melbourne Park.
He appeared on court on Friday with a bandaged thigh, hurting himself in his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday night. The injury appeared to limit his play during the 81-minute set.
Both players held serve throughout the opening set to force a tie-breaker. The tie-breaker was also going on serve before Djokovic dumped an easy volley into the net, losing 7-5.
There were boos from the packed Rod Laver Arena crowd after the umpire announced Djokovic was retiring.
“They can’t be booing him, for God’s sake,” Nine commentator John McEnroe said.
“He has won this 10 times. Unreal.”
Zverev echoed the comments in his post-match interview.
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“Please guys don’t boo a player when he goes out with injury. I know everyone paid for tickets … but Novak has given everything of his life to the sport the last 20 years,” he said.
It was 27-year-old Zverev’s eighth semi-final at a major, while Sunday will be his first Australian Open final appearance.
The 37-year-old Serb, meanwhile, had been trying to become the oldest men’s grand slam champion of all time in Melbourne.
The German is the tournament’s second seed, and it was his third Australian Open semi-final – and second straight after also losing from two sets up last year against Daniil Medvedev.
Zverev will play either the top-ranked titleholder Jannik Sinner or American world No.20 Ben Shelton in the final. Sinner and Shelton play their semi-final later on Friday.
Aussies nab mixed doubles title
Earlier on Friday, John Peers and Olivia Gadecki roared home to clinch the mixed doubles title at Melbourne Park, downing Kim Birrell and John-Patrick Smith in an all-Australian final.
Peers and Gadecki overcame their fellow wildcards to secure a 6-3 4-6 10-6 victory in a match tiebreaker on Rod Laver Arena on Friday.
It was the first time a local mixed pairing had triumphed since Jarmila Gajdosova and Matt Ebden were victorious in 2013, the first all-Aussie final in the Open-era history of the event and the first since the 1967 Australian Championships.
Peers, who won gold with Ebden at last year’s Paris Olympics, showed his poise in the pressure moments to help home 22-year-old Gadecki, playing in her first grand slam final.
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While their rivals dominated early, Victorian Peers and Queenslander Gadecki built into the match and forced a first-to-10-points tiebreak.
With both blasting an ace, they got the early jump to lead 4-1 and while Birrell and Smith levelled at 5-5, Peers and Gadecki again forged ahead 8-5 and were able to celebrate soon after
“That one was a really tight match out there and for us to be able to get it done the way we did in the tiebreaker was credit, especially to the way Liv [Gadecki] came back into this match,” 36-year-old Peers said.
“She really took charge and took it on her own to really step it up there at the end, which was fantastic.”
“As we’ve been doing match after match, we just kept hanging in there, hanging in there, and hoping things go our way.
“Today we hung around long enough, and then we were better for the last five minutes of the match, which worked out really nice.”
Gadecki, ranked world No.106 in singles where she made a first-round exit, agreed that they clicked when it counted.
“It was an incredible sort of five to 10 minutes,” she said.
“I just thought just have a crack and just enjoy the moment and I played some of the my best tennis in that last 10 minutes, and I’m so glad we could get over the line.”
It’s the second mixed major title for Peers after he won the 2022 US Open crown with Storm Sanders, while he won mixed doubles bronze with Ash Barty at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Peers also won the men’s doubles title at Melbourne Park with Finn Henri Kontinen, in 2017, among his six grand slam finals.
Gadecki’s previous best showings were semi-final runs in the Open mixed doubles in the past two years with Marc Polmans.
The winning pair will split $175,000 in prize money while the runners-up will share $97,750.
-with AAP
