The German tennis player Alexander Zverev qualified this Friday for the final of the Australian Open, the first of the four major tournaments of the season, following the withdrawal of Serbian Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic, who was playing his 50th semifinal in a Grand Slam tournament, had already shown signs of physical problems during the first set, which lasted one hour and 21 minutes.
Zverev, currently ranked number two in the world, won the first set in a tiebreak with a score of 6-7 (5-7) against the 37-year-old Serbian, an opponent he had never defeated in a Grand Slam tournament.
Djokovic, holder of the record for Grand Slam titles (24) and Australian Open titles (10), as well as the current world number seven in the ATP rankings, then walked to the center of the court to embrace the German before announcing his withdrawal.
For Zverev, this will be the third final of his career in a Grand Slam tournament, after being a runner-up at Roland Garros (2024) and the US Open (2020).
In the final, the German will face the winner of the match between the world number one, Italian Jannik Sinner, and the 22-year-old American, Ben Shelton, who is currently ranked 20th in the ATP rankings.,