An injured Novak Djokovic stops in the Australian Open semifinals against Alexander Zverev
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An injured Novak Djokovic quit after dropping the first set of his Australian Open semifinal against Alexander Zverev on Friday.
Djokovic lost the opener 7-6 (5) in a tiebreaker and immediately walked around the net to concede the match to Zverev. Fans booed as Djokovic walked off toward the locker room, and he responded by giving two thumbs-up.
Djokovic, who was bidding for an 11 championship at the Australian Open and record 25th Grand Slam title overall, hurt his left leg during his quarterfinal victory against Carlos Alcaraz.
The No. 2-seeded Zverev reached his first title match at Melbourne Park and will face the winner of Friday’s second semifinal between No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy, the defending champion, and No. 21 Ben Shelton of the United States.
Zverev is a two-time runner-up at other major tournaments.
The men’s final is Sunday. In Saturday’s women’s final, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will try to become the first woman since 1999 with three consecutive Australian Open titles when she faces Madison Keys of the United States.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis