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Alexander Zverev qualified for his first Australian Open final when Novak Djokovic retired after the first set of their semifinal match in Melbourne on Friday.

Djokovic, 37, was clearly struggling with a left leg injury throughout the first set, which went to a tiebreaker. When the Serbian put a volley into the net to lose the tiebreak 7-5 and the first set after 1:21, he immediately asked to shake Zverev’s hand and retired from the match.

It is the seventh time Djokovic has retired from a Grand Slam match, and the first time since the Round of 16 at the 2019 U.S. Open.

“I did everything I possible could to manage the muscle tear,” Djokovic said after the match. “But towards the end of the first set I just started feeling more and more pain and it was too much to handle.”

The 10-time Australian Open champion left the court to a smattering of boos from the disappointed fans in Rod Laver Arena.

“Please, don’t boo a player when he goes out with an injury,” Zverev said in his on-court interview moments later. “You gotta understand that Novak Djokovic is somebody that has given this sport for the past 20 years everything in his life.

“He has won this tournament with an abdominal tear. He has won this tournament with a hamstring tear. If he cannot continue a tennis match, it means that he cannot continue a tennis match. So, please, be respectful and really show some love towards him.”

The first set was a back-and-forth affair in which neither player had his serve broken. However, as the set wore on, it was clear that Djokovic was struggling, as he had not practiced in the two days since beating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.

“I actually thought it was a quite high level first set,” Zverev said. “Of course, you know there are some difficulties. Of course I’m happy on one side to be in the final of the Australian Open, I’m in the final of a Grand Slam. On the other hand, I am being 100 percent honest, there is no guy on the tour I respect more than Novak.”

“He’s been one of my closest friends on tour. Whenever I struggled, I could always call him, I could always text him, I could always ask him for advice.

“He’s always somebody that helped a lot. I wanted this to be a tough five-set match, but it is how it is.”

How it is, is that the German will now face the winner of No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 21 Ben Shelton in the men’s singles final on Sunday. Zverev has played in two previous Grand Slam finals, losing to Dominic Thiem in five sets of the 2020 U.S. Open and to Alcaraz in five sets at last year’s French Open.

“I would be nice to win one more set than the first two,” Zverev said. “But Grand Slam finals are always difficult. I’ve had my tough losses, I feel like maybe it’s my time to have some luck in a Grand Slam final as well.”

–Field Level Media