Novak Djokovic marched ahead into the semi-final of the Australian Open after Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti retired injured despite holding a commanding two-sets-to-love lead in quarter-final. Djokovic admitted that he was “extremely lucky” to move ahead.
“I feel really sorry for him, he was the far better player, I was on my way home tonight,” Djokovic said candidly after the match.
“It has happened to me a few times. He was in full control. So unfortunate, I don’t know what else to say. He should have been the winner today, no doubt. I am extremely lucky to get through this one today.”
I was on my way home. Heal well my friend. ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/wUwBy8oH9X
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 28, 2026
Musetti was also forced to retire from his French Open semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz last season. “We have done all the exams and tests before starting the season to see and to try and prevent these kind of injuries, and nothing came out [of them],” Musetti said. “So I honestly have no words to describe how I’m feeling right now and how tough is for me this injury in this moment.”
“Definitely yes. Honestly, I never imagined the feeling of leading two sets to zero against Novak and playing like that. Having the lead of the match like that and being forced to retire is something that I will never imagine. Of course, it’s really painful.”
“I played almost all the second set like that, but I could play, because especially with the serve, it was helping me a lot. I was trying a little bit to push from the baseline, which I was feeling the ball pretty well today. So I was managing to try to hold there and to stay and try to, you know, not look at the pain. But then afterwards when I sit down for three minutes and stayed longer in the wait position, the pain immediately started to increase,” he further said.
“I was – especially when I was going with the forehand on the open stance – I was feeling that I could not come back to the middle. As you saw, I could not really play. Unfortunately, there was no chance, and no way to tape it, to do something, to continue to play,” he added.
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