MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic shared an image of his injured left hamstring on social media early Sunday morning, over a day after he faced booing from the crowd during the Australian Open. This incident occurred when he withdrew from his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev just one set in, citing a torn muscle during his subsequent press conference.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner posted the MRI scan taken on Saturday through an update on X, stating, “Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury ‘experts’ out there.” However, he refrained from providing further insights, such as a precise diagnosis or any estimated timeline for his recovery.
At 37 years of age, Djokovic decided to stop competing after losing the first set in a tiebreaker to Zverev. He shook hands with both Zverev and the chair umpire before collecting his belongings and headed toward the locker room. Amidst this, some fans in Rod Laver Arena expressed their displeasure by booing him. Before departing, Djokovic responded to the crowd with both thumbs up.
Zverev addressed the audience during his on-court interview, expressing disappointment over the booing directed at Djokovic. “I know that everybody paid for tickets and everybody wants to see hopefully a great five-set match,” Zverev mentioned. “But you’ve got to understand — Novak Djokovic is someone who has devoted everything to this sport for the past 20 years.”
Earlier in the tournament, Djokovic had sustained his injury late in the first set of a four-set match against Carlos Alcaraz during the quarterfinals on Tuesday night. He completed that match with a bandage on his upper left leg and started the match against Zverev with a similar wrap.
“I did everything I possibly can to basically manage the muscle tear that I had,” Djokovic remarked at his press conference following the match on Friday. He elaborated, “Towards the end of that first set, I just started feeling more and more pain. It was too much, I guess, to handle for me at that moment. It was an unfortunate ending, but I did my best.”
