Australian Open 2025: Djokovic retires injured against Zverev in semis; Sinner v Shelton to follow – live | Australian Open 2025

The crowds at the Australian Open have become something of a talking point across this month, and John McEnroe, John Millman, and Jelena Dokic pulled no punches on the Channel Nine panel after Djokovic was booed off court after.

“He’s won this 10 times. I mean, come on. Clearly, something was up. The guy’s a battler. I mean, him and Rafa have dug deeper than any two players I’ve ever seen — mentally, physically, you name it. To do that, because he decided that he couldn’t go on after what he’s done here. I thought it was absolutely ludicrous. Honestly, that was depressing. That was almost as depressing to seeing the end of the match, honestly; to see him do that, him put his thumbs up and have [boos]. It’s too bad.

Millman well and truly had the boo-birds in the crowd in his sights, saying they crossed a line.

The crowds have been questioned a lot and rightly so. I think it’s a bit of a shambles. Some of the behavior has crossed the line and that one takes the cake for me. This is a guy that’s won it ten times. Have some respect. He’s one of the all time greats, if not the greatest to play it. He’s definitely the greatest to play on this court. I don’t care how much you’ve spent on your ticket. Have some respect.

Dokic, for her part, was clear in her view that Djokovic wouldn’t have pulled out unless he had to.

We’ve seen Djokovic in his career when he’s had injuries… he’s played through them, played through the tournament, gone on and hasn’t retired in matches.

Only a really heavy knee injury at the French Open took him out last year, where he could play the quarter-final. So if he decided that he couldn’t play, he really couldn’t play.

Jack Snape was at Rod Laver Arena for the semi-final and has filed his immediate reactions.

On the call for the match and taken aback as anyone by Djokovic’s retirement, John McEnroe gave his views that and Zverev’s progression on Channel Nine.

We were all wondering how he’s going to hold up after the match against Carlos [Alcaraz]. But I thought he actually was moving pretty well. Managing things. Clearly, Zverev was tight — trying to sort of get the nerves out. It was a very closely contested first set, hour and 20 minutes set. I was almost more shocked when he missed the volley. I’m like, no way he’s gonna miss that volley, right? Then he missed it. Next thing, the only guy in the stadium that was happy was Zverev! The look in [Zverev’s] eyes was like ‘What?’ We were all like ‘Oh my God!’

But I’ll tell you something, it brings me back, the first time I ever won a major, I got a couple of defaults. And I bet there’s no one here on this [panel] that would know that. You don’t know. In 10 years’ time, if Zverev wins this, no one is going to know or care that Novak didn’t play. He got through. It’s not his fault.

“But that’s a bummer. It was starting to get very interesting. Zverev’s had rollercoaster ride trying to get to win a major and he’s been so close. [He was] serving for the match when he played [Dominic] Thiem, he was up two sets of one against Carlos in the French [Open] [and] he ran out of gas. He figured out that he needed to be able to have more left in the legs to make it through. It looked as if he was… going out there [do] a war of attrition type thing [against Djokovic], like he’s going to break him down. Because he was very passive in my book, more passive than he should have been.

We’ll continue to bring the fallout of Zverev moving into after Djokovic’s shock retirement but there is other tennis happening today beyond the men’s singles.

Today has also seen the women’s final locked in, the top seeded duo of Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend bouncing back after dropping their opening set to defeat Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-3 in the first semi-final.

They will face the third-seeded team of Su-Wei Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko, who have just beaten second-seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 6-3 out on Margaret Court Arena.

Djokovic has addressed media in the wake of his shock retirement.

“I didn’t hit a ball since the Carlos [Alcaraz] match, until like an hour before today’s match. I did everything I possibly could to manage the muscle tear that I had. Medications, 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. It was too much to handle for me at the moment.

“So yeah, an unfortunate, ending, but I tried.

To conclude, Courier asks Zverev for a preview of tonight’s semifinal between Jannik Sinner and Ben Shelton.

What’s going to happen? Ben is going to serve 240 km/h and Jannik is going to return like it’s coming at [him] like a butterfly. That’s what’s that’s probably going to happen.

But no, they’re both great players. Everybody who’s in the same final of a grand slam absolutely deserves to be there. There’s no easy draws. I have tremendous respect for both of those guys and I think it’s going to be entertaining match.

Moving in from Djokovic’s exit, Courier asks Zverev about the improvements he has made to his serve in recent years that have allowed him to hit on ~70% his first serves while flirting with a 200 km/h delivery. He hit on 79% of his first serves today, winning the point on 77% of them while averaging 206 km/h.

Technique was the number one thing that I changed. It was actually with my brother more than anyone else, because my brother was never a master server. He was never a very big server but he was extremely good with his spots and he was extremely good at changing it up with a slice, with a top spin and all that.

What was happening is that I was tossing my ball so high up that I was waiting in that position for so long that I was losing momentum. I couldn’t accelerate any more after the ball was already dropping. So the number one thing that we changed over the past, I think four or five years, is lowering the toss so it’s a fluid motion.

So I actually hit the tennis ball at the highest spot that I can and not wait for it to go down. My serve, being on the second serve especially, went up quite a bit over the last few years.

After the obvious discomfort he was in during his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic’s fitness had been the subject of significant conjecture heading into this semi-final and he took to the court with his thigh heavily strapped.

Nonetheless, Zverev said he hadn’t taken any kind of comfort knowing the ten-time champion may have been hobbled.

Not against Novak, to be honest. I played him here in 2021 when he had an abdominal tear and he served 28 aces against me. I have to play 100%.

I played probably one of my best sets of the tournament in the first set and I 7-5 in a tie break while he was injured. I don’t know, maybe I’m not that good. Maybe Novak is too good for the sport. I don’t know what to say.

Zverev said he had little inkling that the retirement was coming.

No, I actually thought it was quite a high level first set. Of course, you know there are some difficulties, and the longer you continue playing, then maybe the worse it gets. In the tie break he was maybe not moving as well as in the entire first set. But I thought we had extremely long rallies, extremely difficult, physical rallies. In the tie break, I did see him struggle, maybe a bit more.

But still, of course, I’m happy on one side to be in the final Australian Open, I’m in the final of a grand slam.

But on the other hand, I am being 100% honest, there’s no guy on the tour that I respect more than Novak. He’s been one of my closest friends on tour. Whenever I struggled, I could always text him, I could always call him, I could always ask him for advice. I was speaking to him for hours last year in Shanghai, when I was really struggling mentally a little bit after the US Open defeat in the quarter-finals. He’s always somebody that helped a lot.

I wanted it to be a tough five set match as well. But it is how it is. He’s won this tournament 10 times, and again, I have nothing but respect for him.

Zverev begins his post-match interview by taking aim at the contingent of the crowd booing Djokovic after he was forced to retire.

The very first thing I want to say is, please guys don’t boo a player when he goes out with injury. I know that everybody paid for tickets and everybody wants to see, hopefully, a great five set match and everything. But you gotta understand that Novak Djokovic is somebody that has given the sport for the past 20 years, absolutely everything of his life. He has won this tournament with an abdominal tear. He has won this tournament with a hamstring tear. If he can not continue a tennis match, it really means that he can not continue a tennis match. So please be respectful and really show some love for Novak as well.

While I go about transcribing what Zverev said, here’s the moment he moved into a first Australian Open final after Djokovic dropped the opening set in a tie break and indicated he could not continue.

Needless to say, the crowd at Rod Laver Arena is somewhat dumbstruck by what has just happened – boos beginning to come down from the crowd as the reality of what has happened starts to dawn.

Jim Courier is heading out to speak to Zverev now, we’ll bring you what he had to say shortly…

Alexander Zverev defeats Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7-5) Retired

We’re going to a tiebreak in the first set of this men’s semi-final, Zverev producing some big serves and taking the game without dropping a point.

Now over an hour into this one and we’re still waiting for our first break of the match, Djokovic dropping just the one point as his well-placed serving and baseline play produces a relatively straightforward hold and makes it 6-5.

Both John McEnroe and Jim Courier on the host broadcast are suggesting that the fitness concerns that Djokovic is carrying into this contest probably does give impressive physical specimen Zverev the advantage– especially if it goes as long as it’s looking it might –but that the German’s history of just being unable to find that ruthless edge in the crucial moments is giving them pause.

Probably our most straightforward game yet, Zverev holding to love – finishing things off with his seventh ace of the game – as it moves to 5-5.

Zverev just cannot break Djokovic, blowing his fifth opportunity to do so as the seventh seed forces a deuce and, eventually, takes the hold after firing down an ace.

His thigh heavily strapped, we saw our first Djokovic limp after Zverev forced the second deuce in that game and Jim Courier on the broadcast is musing that the German, displaying a level of unexpected restraint so far, is banking on dragging this one out in the hopes that his opponent’s body will break down. Mentally, however, these missed opportunities must be beginning to take a toll even if he’s in it for the long haul.

We’re still on serve, as Zverev produces the hold to take it to 4-4. The German produces the first double fault of the game to fall into a 15-30 hole but he answers back with a 210 km/h ace to draw things level, before directing another 197 km/h ace right past Djokovic to set himself up to produce the hold.

Djokovic produces another hold to take the game to 4-3. After falling behind, back-to-back winners from Zverev take the game to deuce but he can’t lift an attempted return of a drop shot over the net in giving up the advantage, nor keep his attempted return of a subsequent powerful Djokovic serve inbound.

After a challenging start to this match, the Serb is starting to better zero in his first serve, hitting on 11 in a row to drag his rate up above 50%.

Zverev drops the opening point of the game but bounces back to take the next four points and take the hold and make it 3-3. Whereas Djokovic is hitting just 36% of his first serves, the German is landing 81% of the time, firing in back-to-back aces to take this game.

After a shaky opening two services, Djokovic is able to get his first serve working on the third attempt and it pays dividends, dropping just the one point – an unforced error as he attempted to drop a backhand just over the net — as he takes the hold to go up 3-2.

Zverev makes it much harder than it needed to be but, eventually, produces the hold. Three straight unforced errors to open give Djokovic three break points but the German saves all of them to force it to deuce, where an ace gives him the advantage and a powerful shot sent straight into his opponent at the net gives him the forced error to take the game.

Djokovic produces another hold to go up 2-1 but his inability to land a first serve is already looking like it could be an issue going forward. Landing just four of his 21 serves at the first time of asking so far, the Serb was taken to break point four times in that game only to fight back and eventually produce the hold. Unable to land a decisive blow, the host broadcaster is already postulating that the occasion may be getting to Zverev.

A much less dramatic hold for Zverev, working his serve and baseline play to drop just a single point.

Djokovic isn’t able to land a first serve in the opening game but still takes it. Zverev pounces on his serve to set up his first winner of the match in its opening point before we get our first long rally – what is sure to be many in the hours ahead – one in which the Serb takes his first point of the game, one which he backs up with a forearm volley to move ahead. Zverev can’t keep his return of a serve down the T as it goes to 40-15 lead but he stays in it after Djokovic sends a forehand long.

But Djokovic gets the hold; both players charging forward after the German has a shot just drop off the top of the net and exchanging drop shots – Zverev sending his around the net – only for the Serb to find a winner.

It’s a pleasant day in Melbourne, the oppresive heat that has characterised some of the previous days play giving way to a balmy 21 degrees as this semifinal begins. In other words, the weather shouldn’t be a factor in this contest.

Yesterday, of course, saw Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys move into the women’s final. Jack Snape and Tumaini Carayol have recapped all the action.

Sinner put paid to the last of Australian hopes in the men’s draw when he continued his domination over Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals but the local crowd was given something to cheer yesterday when local duo Olivia Gadecki and John Peers took out the mixed doubles.

Jack Snape has filed this from Melbourne.

Djokovic and Zverev have made their way out onto Rod Laver, the tension rising even higher as play approaches.

The last time Djokovic and Zverev met at a grand slam came in 2021, in the semifinals of the US Open. On that day, the German took out the first set and was able to push Djokovic to five sets but, in the end, was unable to deny him.

Tumaini Carayol’s work in Melbourne across the past few weeks has been superb and his scene setter for today’s men’s semifinals is no different.

Even before he had undergone medical tests, defined the nature of his physical ailment and planned for his recovery, Novak Djokovic knew what was in store for him in the days after his remarkable quarter-final victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, which he pulled off despite struggling with left thigh pain.

Preamble