Novak Djokovic was the first to admit he\u2019s lucky to be back in the Australian Open semifinals instead of Lorenzo Musetti. Despite being two sets down, slowed by a serious blister on his foot and already thinking about his flight home, the 24-time major winner won Wednesday\u2019s quarterfinal when fifth-seeded Musetti retired with an injury.<\/p>\n
Musetti took the first two sets 6-4, 6-3 but needed a medical timeout for treatment on his upper right leg after being broken in the third game of the third. The 23-year-old Italian played on for almost two games but couldn\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n
After serving a double-fault in the fifth game to give Djokovic another breakpoint chance, Musetti wiped a hand across his face, walked toward the net and removed his headband before exchanging a handshake and quick hug.<\/p>\n
Djokovic, who was leading the third set 3-1, will continue his bid for an 11th Australian title and a record 25th major but acknowledged he was lucky this time. He also said, it happens in tennis. \u201cIt happened to me a few times. But being in the quarters of a Grand Slam, two sets to love up and being in full control \u2014 I mean, so unfortunate,\u201d for Musetti, Djokovic said in an on-court TV interview. \u201cHe should have been a winner today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musetti was also forced to retire from the French Open semifinals last year \u2014 with an injured left leg \u2014 after taking a set from eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really sorry for him,\u201d the 38-year-old Djokovic said. \u201cHe was a far better player – I was on my way home tonight.\u201d In the first set, Djokovic tried to go out hard. He took an early break and was just a point away from a 3-0 lead before Musetti responded and took control of the match. The situation appeared to get more dire for Djokovic when he needed a medical timeout after the second set for a serious blister on the ball of his right foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic was the first to admit he\u2019s lucky to be back in the Australian Open semifinals instead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-262999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}