Novak Djokovic is into the Australian Open semi-finals after Lorenzo Musetti was forced to retire, while leading 2 sets to 0.
In an Australian Open somewhat lacking of drama and storylines, compared to recent editions, day 11 gave us exactly the kind of drama we didn’t need.
Lorenzo Musetti and Novak Djokovic took to Rod Laver Arena for a tantalizing quarter-final clash. Despite the head-to-head sitting well in favour of Djokovic, there was a popular opinion that this might have been Musetti’s time.
Not many could’ve foreseen the quality of play that Musetti brought to the court in the opening 2 sets though. With slices, volleys, drop shots, and big forehands, Musetti’s variety had Djokovic in all sorts of trouble.
At 2 sets to 0 down, even the hardiest of Djokovic supporters seemed resigned to the fact, that this wasn’t going to be their man’s day.
But then the script got turned on it’s head, ripped up, and shredded to pieces.
The Italian took a medical timeout between the second and third sets, and once he got back on court, the signs were ominous. Musetti couldn’t move. He was swinging at everything. After 4 games, he pulled the pin. Djokovic was through to the semis in a horribly unfortunate way.
For Musetti, this was déjà vu after being in a similar position at Roland Garros a few years back, against the same opponent. He was also forced to retire in Paris against Carlos Alcaraz just last year. When asked if this was the hardest one to take, Musetti was adamant.
“Definitely yes. Honestly, I never imagined, you know, the feeling of leading two sets to zero against Novak and playing like that and have the lead of the match like that and be forced to retire is something that, of course, I will never imagine. Of course, it’s really painful.
I felt it at the beginning of the second set. I felt there was something strange in my right leg. You know, I continued to play, because I was playing really, really, really well, but I was feeling that the pain was increasing, and the problem was not getting away.
At the end, when I took the medical time-out, to stay three minutes, I sitted, and when I started to play again, I felt even more and was getting higher and higher the level of the pain.”
Musetti explained that he was actually in trouble earlier in the match, but the pain was manageable at that stage.
“Honestly, I played almost all the second set like that, but I could play, because especially with the serve, it was helping me a lot, and I was trying a little bit to push from the baseline, which I was feeling the ball pretty well today.
So I was managing, you know, to try to hold there and to stay and try to, you know, don’t really look at the pain. But then afterwards, as I said, the first question, when I sit down for three minutes and I kind of, not relax, but kind of stayed longer in the wait position, the pain immediately started to increase.
Then afterwards, I was feeling also — especially when I was going with the forehand on the open stance, I was feeling that I could not come back to the middle and then started, as you saw, I could not really play.”
It was a horrible end to the World No.5’s campaign, and with the form he was in, it would have been fascinating to see him up against Jannik Sinner on Friday night. But that task now falls to Djokovic.
“I have to play better. I mean, no doubt about it. I know that if I’m feeling well and the body is holding on and I’m playing well, then, I mean, I always have a chance. It’s semifinals of a Grand Slam, so in terms of level of confidence and motivation, I mean, of course, it’s always there. It must be. Otherwise, what’s the point of competing?
So I’ve been in this situation many, many times in my career, and obviously four times last year. I’m glad to repeat the best Grand Slam result from last year, which is reaching semis. You know, I know that it’s only going to get tougher from here, but I have to be ready for it.
Now, I cannot predict the result of whether I’m going to play well or not, but I’m definitely going to give my best.”
When asked his opinion on the reasons why there’s been a number of walkovers and retirements here, Djokovic explained that the off-season isn’t just a time for players to put their feet up and rest.
“It’s the beginning of the season, so from one point of view, you would say, well, the players rested and trained and get themselves into a good state, physical, emotional, mental game state to perform well, and have no reason for an injury.
But it’s kind of a two-edged sword, to be honest, because the offseason is the only time of the year when you can really push yourself physically, but also mentally, emotionally on the court in terms of tweaking certain things about your game and improving and trying to put more effort than normally you would during the season.
So that also requires a lot of energy and effort, and that puts an additional strain on the player. So if you see things from that perspective, it’s also kind of understandable, the fact that you haven’t played, for most of the players, on a competitive tournament, official tournament, for maybe a month and a half or two months, and coming into new season, obviously body is behaving differently when you are playing official match than playing practice sets.”
For Musetti, if he can get his body right, and he brings this kind of form, his time will come. Unfortunately for him, he’s going to have to wait a bit longer.
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