Novak had not hit a tennis ball since his win over Carlos Alcaraz. He skipped two days of practice to help his leg strain heal. In the night match, Jannik Sinner made his second final in Melbourne with a 2 win over Ben Shelton. Sinner was a heavy favourite coming in, and after recovering from losing his serve twice in the first set, he lived up to the billing, overcoming a bout of cramp in the third set to get the win over the left-handed Shelton.
Alexander Zverev is through to his first Australian Open final after Novak Djokovic retired following the first set of their semi-final. He could not continue due to a muscle tear in his upper left leg, which he had sustained during his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz.
Before the tiebreak, I thought Djokovic played well. That was expected, as he came into this match preloaded with some pain medication that was hard at work before they even started playing. The tiebreak was also pretty close, and only a botched volley on set point made the difference. I thought Sascha played solidly enough. He was a little passive and opted not to do much with his shots, which helped Djokovic keep things close as he could snatch the initiative.
So, was that smart from Zverev? I dunno, did he intentionally play passive or was he playing like that because he reverted to type at the back end of slams? I played him here in when he had an abdominal tear. I have to play per cent. I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set.
But of course there is some difficulties and the longer you continue playing, then maybe the worse it gets. In the tie-break, he was maybe not moving as well as in the entire first set. But I thought we had extremely long rallies, extremely difficult, physical rallies. In the tie-break I did see him struggle maybe a bit more. The two best players in the world are playing on that court.
