2025 Australian open SF - [7] Novak Djokovic (SRB) v/s [2] Alexander 'Sascha' Zverev (GER)

[Nappa]

My theory is that he and Zverev know each other very well, and he must have known that he was not going to beat Zverev on this day, so he retired to save his body.

Exactly. Had he won that 1st set tie break he wouldnt have retired

 

[Bride of Alcaraz]

Don't loose hope. I'm sure there are a lot of nice women down under.

Its ok because during when i was 14-19 i dated SIX classy club tennis players (one per year!) so i never had to date a teenager
Now i'm 20 and with my first ever non-tennis-player (though she's played tennis a lot since me).
Anyway point is, if AO crowds are rude, maybe because Aussie teens are scary as!

 

[marc45]

Watching the first few games of the match now (replay) : Seems Sascha chose the perfect strategy : make this a very physical match and grind Novak down. No hightlight reel shots, just make him play an awful lot of balls. Team Carlos are you watching? Your player should have more cards up on his sleeve.

seems that was the strategy, of course that's pretty much his normal play anyway...problem was he still blew multiple chances to make the set much easier with poor and passive play on second serve returns and neutral balls...give him great credit on the final point though...when they say try for every ball, try to at least make your opponent hit one more shot, you never know...he made that adage truer than ever

 

[Bill Lobsalot]

Best of 5 limits the possible champions to younger players and that's a shame.

 

[Krish0608]

Djokovic could have turned this match around if he wanted. But he knew what await him in the final. He didn’t want to cop another AO loss at the hands of Sinner. For a player obsessed about records and legacy, there’s no way he would risk having back to back losses against Sinner at his favorite slam.

 

[Hood_Man]

Best of 5 limits the possible champions to younger players and that's a shame.

This is being said after what the last 15 years of tennis has looked like?

 

[tennis24x7]

Is this the finally the Time for Sasha Zeverev to win a major ? Is this it ? Old man novak is as venurable as ever,,, and Sinner is sick as well.... and Alcarez who owns him is out.

I hope he can sneak one here.

 

[Daniel Andrade]

Djokovic just played in this AO to get Carlitos out of the tournament xD

 

[tennis24x7]

He’s winning, or I am out 1000.00.

Put your money when Wimbledon comes around. Like I have said before he is playing till he wins one more Wimbledon than Federer.

 

[mike danny]

Carlos deserves extra criticism for his loss now. Especially after all the coping in that match thread.

 

[Bride of Alcaraz]

Best of 5 limits the possible champions to younger players and that's a shame.

Alcaraz and Sinner are the only young guys good enough to win slams, and this year Sinner turns 24, so he won't qualify as "young" for much longer.
And if Alcaraz/Sinner don't win slams, it will be someone over 25, because the next guys in line are...
27 Zverev
27 Fritz
28 Medvedev
26 Ruud
25 De Minaur
27 Rublev
33 Dimitrov
27 Paul
26 Tsitsipas

 

[Bride of Alcaraz]

Carlos deserves extra criticism for his loss now. Especially after all the coping in that match thread.

Alcaraz played great though, 50 winners, 40 unforced errors, whereas Djokovic had 31 winners, 27 unforced errors!
Alcaraz has never beaten Djokovic on hardcourt, and this is Djokovic's favorite hardcourt by far.
And if Djokovic didn't get injured then he'd have returned more defensively, but instead he went for big returns and that's why he won...

 

[Racquet_smash]

Alcaraz played great though, 50 winners, 40 unforced errors, whereas Djokovic had 31 winners, 27 unforced errors!
Alcaraz has never beaten Djokovic on hardcourt, and this is Djokovic's favorite hardcourt by far.
And if Djokovic didn't get injured then he'd have returned more defensively, but instead he went for big returns and that's why he won...

50 winners is heavily skewed by how much energy saving Djokovic came up with. He didn't run after a lot of balls he could have easily defended.

He definitely did not play great. His return was horrific, Djokovic couldn't put 1st serves in during the 4th yet he had no answers to the right slice 2nd serve. His serve was also terrible, Djokovic despite having no movement was returning winners off both 1st and 2nd serves.

 

[sureshs]

Even worse than @sureshs

Stop joking about my balls

 

[MichaelNadal]

Carlos deserves extra criticism for his loss now. Especially after all the coping in that match thread.

He really did play an absolutely terrible match

 

[Big_Dangerous]

Stop joking about my balls

Did the coach take them again?

 

[robyrolfo]

Well, that was truly bizarre. He seemed to be moving just fine, and after what went on with Alcaraz, it just makes no sense to retire like that.

Also, can we stop hearing about the muscle "tear" a few years ago? Enough with his nonsenese.

Djokovic could have turned this match around if he wanted. But he knew what await him in the final. He didn’t want to cop another AO loss at the hands of Sinner. For a player obsessed about records and legacy, there’s no way he would risk having back to back losses against Sinner at his favorite slam.

I think there is some truth here. I also think he could have kept playing and beaten Zverev if he really wanted to... which makes the retirement all the worse.

 

[Mark-Touch]

Amazing that 114 TTW members got the poll wrong.
Some might say "Well there wasn't an option for 'Zverev in 1'.

If you felt he would win in 1 you just had to skip the poll.

 

[Nostradamus]

Famous Roger Federer quote "
“It’s happened before,” said Federer. “He’s not the guy who has never given up in his career. So that’s kind of disappointing to see, when you’ve got two top guys playing each other and you give up.

“He gave up against me in Monaco last year because of a sore throat. Those are the kind of things you wonder about.

“I’ve only given up basically once in my career when I couldn’t move because of my back.”

 

[Bride of Alcaraz]

50 winners is heavily skewed by how much energy saving Djokovic came up with. He didn't run after a lot of balls he could have easily defended.

He definitely did not play great. His return was horrific, Djokovic couldn't put 1st serves in during the 4th yet he had no answers to the right slice 2nd serve. His serve was also terrible, Djokovic despite having no movement was returning winners off both 1st and 2nd serves.

But Djokovic's return of serve was more aggressive than usual, and that is why he won
If Djokovic played the 2nd, 3rd, 4th sets the way he played the 1st Set (which wasn't bad, but Alcaraz had control of the rallies a lot more) it would have been a lot easier for Alcaraz to control the points and win.