Novak Djokovic was hoping to get closer to his historic 25th Grand Slam title, but his plan fell into pieces when a muscle tear hampered him from continuing his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev on Friday (January 24).

When Zverev won the tie-break, and eventually the first set, Djokovic approached the net and shook hands with the German, giving him the walkover, which made Sascha an Australian Open finalist for the first time.

Djokovic then packed up and was leaving the court when a section of the crowd started to boo him. In response, the 24-time Grand Slam champion only gave a thumbs-up to them, before walking off the court.

Watch the video here:

Djokovic was bidding to win his 11th Australian Open, last winning the title in 2023. Zverev, on the other hand, is now waiting for the winner of the semifinal match between World No.1 Jannik Sinner and 21st seed Ben Shelton. The World No.2 is 4-2 against the Italian, but lost their last encounter, and is 1-0 against the American.

Novak Djokovic, while announcing that he added Andy Murray to his team, had said that he would be working with the Scot at least till the Australian Open. Now that he is out of the tournament, he was asked in the press conference whether he and Murray would extend their partnership.

Murray retired as a professional player at the 2024 Paris Olympis and Djokovic added him to his entourage in November last year following his split with Croatian coach Goran Ivanisevic in March of the same year.

Before the shocking withdrawal from the Australian Open semifinal, Djokovic was struggling to play during his quarterfinal clash with Carlos Alcaraz and took a medical timeout but was slammed for taking it. He even called off his practice session before the semifinal clash.