Lorenzo Musetti retires injured one set away from beating Novak Djokovic at Australian Open – The Athletic

MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic has advanced to the Australian Open semifinals after a devastated Lorenzo Musetti was forced to retire hurt when leading by two sets to love.

The Italian No. 5 seed led 6-4, 6-3 in a dominant display, before retiring early in the third set. “I honestly have no words to describe how I’m feeling right now and how tough it is for me,” Musetti said in a news conference afterward.

He explained that he believed he had suffered a tear in the right adductor area, but will undergo further tests to discover the details and severity.

He first felt the injury at the start of the second set, which he ended up winning comfortably.

“I was feeling that the pain was increasing, and the problem was not going away,” he added. Serving at 1-1 in the third set, Musetti winced in pain going for a forehand and called for the trainer to come onto the court at the end of the game. As Musetti received treatment, Djokovic, who had put in a listless performance hampered by blisters, stretched out his leg. He said in his news conference that the blisters weren’t a major concern.

When play resumed, Musetti was clearly physically compromised and the end was inevitable. Djokovic held for 3-1 and was up 15-40 on Musetti’s serve when the Italian admitted defeat.

Djokovic knew this was a major reprieve. He had been on the brink of what would have been a hugely dispiriting defeat, but in the end advanced 4-6, 3-6, 3-1(ret).

“He was by far the better player, I was on my way home,” an apologetic Djokovic said in his on-court interview.

“He should have been a winner today, there’s no doubt.”

The 10-time Australian Open champion described himself as “extremely lucky” and, later in the interview room, described the situation Musetti found himself as “horrible.”

Musetti said in his news conference that the injury happened at the start of the second set, but that he was able to manage it by attacking and using his serve to win quick points.

But at the start of the third set, after sitting down for a changeover, the cooldown caused the pain to increase and it then became impossible for him to play on.

For Musetti, this will have brought back painful memories of the right-thigh injury that forced him to retire in the fourth set of last year’s French Open semifinal against Carlos Alcaraz after winning the first set. It was a similar story in the Monte Carlo final against the same player a couple of months earlier, when Musetti won the first set but then just one game subsequently as he tried to play through another upper-leg injury.

Back in 2021, Musetti retired in the fifth set of a French Open fourth round against Djokovic having won the first two sets as he battled cramps and a back issue.

But this one was surely the cruelest of the lot. Musetti was much the better player in the first two sets, and was on the verge of his biggest win at a Grand Slam.

“Honestly, I never imagined the feeling of leading two sets to zero against Novak and playing like that and having the lead of the match like that,” he said.

“To be forced to retire is something that, of course, I will never imagine. Of course, it’s really painful.”

Instead, Djokovic still has the chance to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam this week, and will next face two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner or No. 8 seed Ben Shelton in the semifinals.

But he looked all of his 38 years for the first two sets here. If his opponent is Sinner, then Djokovic will be second-favorite to advance to Sunday’s final.

Djokovic said as much himself in what was an often terse news conference. “I wasn’t playing close to my best today, so I’m going to have to change that around,” he said. “It (Musetti’s level) was great, for sure. But I think I’ve underperformed for the level that I showed throughout this tournament up to today

“I have to play better. I mean, no doubt about it.”

When asked about the challenge of trying to catch up with Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz and how that compared to doing the same early on in his career with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Djokovic responded: “I’m chasing Jannik and Carlos? In which sense?”

“I find it a little bit disrespectful that you kind of miss out on what happened in between,” he said.

“There’s probably about a 15-year period in between where I was dominating the Grand Slams. So I think it’s important to put that in perspective. I don’t feel like I’m chasing, to be honest.”

Djokovic acknowledged the gap between Sinner and Alcaraz and the rest, but said: “Does that mean that I walk out with a white flag? No. I’m going to fight until the last shot, until the last point, and do my very best to challenge them.”

To win a 25th Grand Slam on Sunday, he’ll likely have to beat them both in the next few days. Which after trailing by two sets to the physically compromised Musetti would surely be one of the greatest turnarounds of his career.