Alexander Zverev has closed to within a win of shaking his Grand Slam hoodoo after advancing to the Australian Open final following Novak Djokovic's retirement due to a left leg injury.
In his ninth Grand Slam semifinal, the second seed could not shake the 24-time major champion at Melbourne Park until a first-set tiebreak.
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Upon surrendering it on a netted forehand volley, Djokovic – with his upper left leg heavily strapped from the outset – immediately crossed to his opponent’s side of the net to concede 7-6(5), ret.
After summoning all his will to battle through a muscle tear and past third seed Carlos Alcaraz in a statement four-set quarterfinal triumph, after 81 minutes at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, his body could take no more.
“Novak Djokovic is someone who has given to this sport for the past 20 years absolutely everything of his life,” Zverev said.
“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."
In a battle between the past two Olympic champions, both squandered break point opportunities through the opening eight games before the German brought up his fifth and a chance to serve for it.
Bidding to become just the second man after Roger Federer to notch 100 match wins at Melbourne Park, the Serbian snuffed him out with measured aggression.
For the first time in his career, Zverev was expected to beat the 10-time Australian Open champion, and the tension made the opening set even more crucial.
“I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set,” Zverev said. “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 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.
“I spoke with him for hours last year after Shanghai when I was struggling a bit mentally. I wanted it to be a tough five-set match, but it is how it is. He’s won this tournament 10 times and I have nothing but respect for him.”
Those demons in China surfaced due to a relatively fruitless four months in which he failed to win a title following his Roland Garros letdown, a title match in which he admitted simply ran out of puff over five sets against Carlos Alcaraz.
A return to his former trainer of seven years, Jez Green, has already paid dividends on a physical-conditioning front, but it was Djokovic who helped him find perspective on a mental front.
“I was disappointed after the French Open how my year was going,” Zverev said. “I was not winning tournaments anymore. US Open was extremely disappointing to me because I thought I had a big chance to go very far there, to make it to the finals. I performed bad, very, very bad in my opinion.
“You know, I was just asking him how it was for him when he was having difficult moments, you know, 2016, '17 and all that, how he was coming back. He was always very open to me.
“We had very long chats there, as well. We practised quite a lot together in Shanghai, funny enough. He was just talking to me about his situations and about his experiences with difficult times.”
Having laid to rest the ghosts of last year’s semifinal in which he relinquished a two-set lead to Daniil Medvedev, the 27-year-old now turned his focus to his third major final against either defending champion Jannik Sinner or Ben Shelton on Sunday.
Following a harrowing five-set capitulation from two sets up against Dominic Thiem in the 2020 US Open final and that five-set heartbreak against Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s Roland Garros decider, Zverev hoped his time had arrived.
“It would be nice to win one more set than in the first two I played,” he joked.
“Grand Slam finals are always difficult, the two best players are playing. I lost twice in the final set so I’ve had my tough losses. I feel like maybe it’s time to have some luck in a Grand Slam final.”