I am one of those Novak Djokovic fans that likes him because he is doing things that that shouldn't be possible as he rolls over opponents that are 20 year younger than him, sometimes he does this to opponents that are not yet 20 when he is 40 years old (close enough).
Well yesterday at the Australian Open it was looking like Nole was going to get sent packing back home when something that a friend and I were discussing as some sort of "rare event" just before it happened in this very event that we were watching.
The game started out competitively as you would expect as you enter the later rounds of one of the biggest tennis events on the planet but the much younger and very talented Lorenzo Musetti seemed to have an answer for most of Djokovic's magic that mostly destroys other players. These guys are ranked very close to one another in the global rankings, with one of them being number 4 ranked, and the other being number 5. I do not recall which is which. It doesn't really matter.
Anyway, the first set ended 6-4 with a couple of these sets being very close. It very well could have been 6-3 or even 6-2. The second set saw things get even worse for Nole as it ended in 6-3. These are best-of-five events for the men (the women play best of 3!) and it looked like the writing was on the wall and that the GOAT who many say is fading in ability appeared to be headed home.
Between sets one and two it was Djokovic that was being medically attended to as he seemed to be having a great deal of pain in his right foot that would later be reveled to be blisters. He could be seen wincing in pain as he received treatment. Myself and my friend who were watching at the ungodly middle of the night hour nearly decided to call off the watch party to go and get some sleep but figured we would watch just one more set.
Then everything changed, strangely and quickly.
In the 3rd set, Nole came out screaming good, and went up 3-1 with Musetti being noticeably slower to react to serves and just everything in general. I kind of wondered if he was spent, had used up too much energy in the first 2 sets of victory and we thought that we (me and my friend) were going to be in for an additional 2.5 hours as Novak battled his way back from two sets down, which by the way is something that only happens 8% of the time in the history of the Australian Open.
We had recalled that between sets 2 and 3 it was Musetti that was getting the medical attention to his right thigh and since they don't announce these things while the game is going on nor is the physio on the field exactly a doctor, we are left to guess about what it could be. Was it just a rubdown? Was it heat stress the likes of which Sinner would insist they stop play and close the roof and turn on the AC for? What was it? The cameras kept focusing on Musetti's right foot as if they had some sort of information regarding what was wrong with him.
Lorenzo, after losing the 4th game to go down 3-1 in the 3rd set, all of a sudden gestured to the referee and stated that he was retiring due to injury. What this means, to those of you out there that don't watch tennis is that Musetti, who basically had this one in the bag, was forfeiting the match and could not continue thus giving Djokovic the win and the ability to progress further into the tournament. My friend, who is a massive Novak Djokovic fan, was elated.
Nole being the gracious guy that he is gave a wonderful post match interview with whoever that guy is that does that sort of thing in Australia and gave a lot of praise to his opponent saying that "he was much better than me, and that this is very unfortunate."
As it turns out, Musetti wasn't just being a lil' bitch, but he had torn a muscle in his upper right leg and was in a great deal of pain in the 3rd set while attempting to continue play against one of the best in the world. Even though I am sure it pains him to do so, his decision to retire was the correct one because if he had fought through the pain and won he almost certainly would have had to forfeit the next match anyway once the reality and shock of the injury, which almost certainly would have been made much worse by continuing to play had set in later.
So Djokovic moves on to the next round which unfortunately has him playing against world number 2 and currently the most hated man in tennis, Jannik Sinner.
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swap AM for pm and you have the real start time for me here locally
While there were a few upsets in this entire tournament I find it amusing that the people making it to the semi-finals are ranked 1,2,3, and 4.
It would be amazing if Djokovic could displace Sinner, but we all know that this is very unlikely.
Novak made the crowd laugh a few times at one point saying that he needs to "double his amount of prayers tonight" and yes indeed, that is necessary. At the time that Musetti got his muscle tear, Nole was definitely going to lose and the TV crew already knew this as they were showing angles that featured how many times Novak had won the Australian Open, and they usually only do this when a legend is about to depart early.
I just hope he can make a game of it against Sinner, but the odds are not in his favor. Sinner is currently a -750 favorite to win that match with Vegas odds.