German tennis star, Alexander Zverev who is still bidding for his first Grand Slam title has ended Novak Djokovic’s dream for a record extending Australian Open 11th title in their semi finals clash.
Zverev, who has lost two previous Grand Slam finals, will face either Italian top seed Jannik Sinner or American 21st seed Ben Shelton in Sunday’s final.
Djokovic was booed off court by fans as he retired from the semi finals match after losing the first set 7-6 (7-5) in 80 minutes following an injury to his upper left leg.
The 37-year old Serb who was also aiming for an all-time standalone record of 25 major titles said, “I did everything I possibly could do to manage the muscle tear that I had.”
He added that, “Towards the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain (but) It was too much to handle for me.”
“I knew even if I won the first set, that it’s going to be a huge uphill battle for me to stay physically fit enough to stay with him in the rallies for two, three, four hours,” Djokovic stressed.
After he slapped a volley into the net on set point, Djokovic immediately approached Zverev and shook his hand.
He waved to the crowd and gave them a double thumbs up, despite audible boos from some sections inside Rod Laver Arena.
