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Germany's Alexander Zverev cruised to the final of the ongoing Australia Open 2025 in the men's singles category after former World No.1 from Serbia, Novak Djokovic, retired from the semi-final clash after suffering a left leg injury on Friday.
Zverev will now face the winner of the second semi-final between Jannik Sinner and Alex de Minaur in the final on Sunday. Djokovic, struggling with the injury from the outset, managed to hold his ground against Zverev for around 90 minutes in the first set. The opening set went to a tie-break which the German player went on to win with a scoreline of 7-6. At 1-2, 0/40, Djokovic created three break points and fought off five break points total in the first set, before the Serbian scored a standard volley with the court open in the last point, the tie-break was all on serve. In a post-match interview, Zverev spoke about Djokovic's injury "Novak Djokovic is someone who has given to this sport for the past 20 years absolutely everything of his life. He has won this tournament with an abdominal tear and again with a hamstring tear, so if he cannot continue this tennis match, he really cannot continue this tennis match," Zverev said after the match as quoted by the Australia Open official website. Further, the 27-year-old player shared his thoughts on the first set which he won with a scoreline of 7-6. "I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set. During the tiebreak, he wasn't moving as well as earlier in the first set. We had physical rallies, [but] in the tiebreak I did see him struggle a bit more. I'm happy on one side to be in the final of the Australian Open, in the final of a Grand Slam, but on the other hand, there's not a guy on the tour I respect more than Novak. He's been one of my closest friends on tour," Zeverev added. (ANI)
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