Injured Novak Djokovic advances to quarters at Australian Open

Novak Djokovic wore tape above his proper hip, and winced when he stretched for some photographs in a three-hour match in opposition to Milos Raonic that may go into the information as his three hundredth win at a serious.
For anybody curious concerning the severity of his damage, he put it into context after qualifying for the Australian Open quarterfinals for the twelfth time.
“If it’s any other tournament than a Grand Slam then I would retire, withdraw from the event, that’s for sure,” Djokovic stated in an on-court TV interview Sunday following his 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 fourth-round victory. “When it warmed up it was fine. During the match it was kind of on and off.”
The eight-time Australian Open champion deliberate to spend a lot of the subsequent two days recovering forward of his quarterfinal in opposition to sixth-seeded Alexander Zverev.
That’s just about how he spent his time after injuring an stomach muscle in his five-set, third-round win over Taylor Fritz.
Numerous restoration, a variety of time getting physiotherapy and, he stated, “different treatments with different devices. You know, just pills, painkillers and stuff like this with the medical team … that definitely helped a lot.”
He didn’t apply on Saturday — he stated he didn’t hit a ball — and didn’t know till he was warming up three hours earlier than his match in opposition to Raonic whether or not or not he’d be match sufficient to play Sunday’s late match on Rod Laver Arena.
In the top, he appeared OK as he prolonged his profession streak to 12-0 in opposition to the big-serving Canadian. He dropped his racket and hurdled an promoting hoarding within the first set, and later watched on as 14th-seeded Raonic had his proper ankle re-taped throughout a medical day trip within the second.
His motion wasn’t peak Djokovic, but it surely was ok to supply 41 winners and drop solely one in all his 20 service video games. His profession win-loss document within the 4 tennis majors is now 300-45, making him the one man apart from Roger Federer (362-59) to compile 300 wins.
“I won the match against a great player,” Djokovic stated, “and hopefully it’s going to be even better in two days.”
U.S. Open finalist Zverev beat No. 23-seeded Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to maneuver into the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park in back-to-back years.
The projected quarterfinal in that high part of the draw panned out in keeping with the seedings.
This different quarterfinal match in that half of the draw is one which no one noticed coming.
With a straight-sets win over third-seeded Dominic Thiem, the U.S. Open champion and Australian Open runner-up in 2020, Grigor Dimitrov superior to a showdown with Aslan Karatsev.
Yes, that Karatsev — the Russian ranked No. 114 who’s taking part in in his first Grand Slam event. Dimitrov beating Thiem isn’t precisely an upset.
The 29-year-old Bulgarian has been ranked as excessive as No. 3, received the ATP Finals, and already led his pal, Thiem, 3-2 in profession head-to-heads, though this was their first assembly at a serious.
Despite his prolonged tennis pedigree, Dimitrov has by no means been previous the semifinals at a Grand Slam. So he’s cautious of any individual like Karatsev.
“If you’re here, it’s for a reason – there’s no doubt about it,” Dimitrov stated after his 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 win. “Whether it’s a fairytale or not, it’s a match — you’ve got to be ready.”
Karatsev earlier added a win over No. 20 Felix Auger-Aliassime, coming again for a 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory, to an earlier upset over No. 8 Diego Schwartzman.
He’d failed in 9 earlier bids to qualify for a Grand Slam event, however lastly succeeded in Doha final month, when qualifying for the Australian Open was held offshore for the primary time due to restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic.
He’s now simply the third qualifier to get this far in Australia within the skilled period, the primary since Goran Ivanisevic in 1989. The final man to get to the spherical of eight in his first Grand Slam look was Alex Radulescu at Wimbledon in 1996.
And not since Patrick McEnroe — John’s brother — in 1991 has a person ranked as little as 114th made it to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
“I was working a lot, and it just happened right now,” the 27-year-old Karatsev stated of his current streak.
“It’s like you never know when it happens. It just happened here.”
Thiem stated he had a number of points on Sunday, however didn’t need to elaborate or use them as excuses.
It was clear that he was nonetheless fatigued after having to return from two units right down to beat Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in 5 units on Friday evening.
“Some little physical issues, plus a real bad day, plus the fact that, well, he’s a great player,” Thiem stated. “So a combination of those three things, and a result like that can happen.”
“The thing also is that I’m also not a machine,” he added. “I mean, sometimes I would like to be, but there are really, really bad days.”