MELBOURNE, Australia – Novak Djokovic broke a racket, flying a piece of the structure. Later, he threw himself right there at the bottom of the blue court, looking as helpless as possible.
He lost the first set against Alexander Zverev, one of the young men trying to push Djokovic aside and the rest of the Big Three. Djokovic lost 3-0 in the third. And 3-0 in the fourth as well, eventually even facing a set point.
Ah, but it’s Djokovic we’re talking about, the biggest competitor. And this is Djokovic at the Australian Open, where no man has been better. Then, of course, Djokovic pulled himself together and took the win, reaching his ninth semifinal at Melbourne Park by eliminating seed number 5 of Zverev 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (6) Tuesday – night.
Djokovic is approaching a ninth championship in Australia, which would increase his own record for a man. And an 18th overall Grand Slam title, two less than rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (who plays in the quarterfinals on Wednesday).
Both men used duct tape in the middle to help with abdominal problems; Djokovic was injured during his victory in the third round against Taylor Fritz.
This did not prevent Djokovic ranked first to produce 23 aces, including the full stop.
In the semifinals, he will have the surprise of the tournament: Aslan Karatsev, 27-year-old Russian, who is in 114th position and needed to go through the qualifiers just to reach the main draw of an important event for the first time.
No one had ever been among the four finalists in his debut in Slam, until Karatsev’s 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 elimination on Tuesday of No. 18 Grigor Dimitrov, who was injured by spasms on the back that made the tie shoes a chore.
Zverev, runner-up to the US Open in 2020 and a semi-finalist in Melbourne a year ago, once again had problems against elite competition on the biggest stages. He dropped to 0-8 against the top 10 opponents in Grand Slam tournaments; he is 25-29 facing such opponents in turn level matches otherwise.