Lorenzo Musetti explains brutal injury that forced ‘painful’ Novak Djokovic retirement | Tennis | Sport

A devastated Lorenzo Musetti said there was “no sense and no way” he could continue to play following his sudden retirement in the middle of his Australian Open quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic, despite closing in on victory.

Musetti led the 10-time former champion here by two sets to love, and Djokovic was struggling, hitting 31 unforced errors across the first two sets. But the Italian was broken early in set three and called the trainer, receiving a medical timeout. He attempted to play on but could barely move or push off on his serve, and retired at 6-4 6-3 1-3 15-40, shaking his head and walking to the net with his face in his hands.

No. 4 seed Djokovic confessed that he had been “on the way home” and told the crowd that Musetti should have won. And Musetti has now explained what led to his “painful” retirement.

The heartbroken 23-year-old explained: “I felt it at the beginning of the second set. I felt there was something strange in my right leg. You know, I continued to play, because I was playing really, really, really well, but I was feeling that the pain was increasing, and the problem was not getting away.

“At the end, when I took the medical time-out, to stay three minutes, I sitted, and when I started to play again, I felt even more and was getting higher and higher the level of the pain. So not much to say about it.”

The world No. 5 must now do further tests to determine the extent of his injury, but Musetti believes he has a muscle tear. “Well, to tape it, it was a little bit too high, so it was impossible to tape it. And, no, I mean, I feel personally that I know my body, and I feel personally that I’m kind of secure that this is a tear, unfortunately,” he continued.

“I’m not doctor, but it’s kind of on the – I don’t know if it’s the adductor or… I don’t know. It’s over there. But, of course, I will do all the exams when I will come back home and, of course I will update you guys.”

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Musetti has struggled with injuries throughout his career, and this was his 10th mid-match retirement, and third at a Grand Slam tournament. But the Italian star admitted this was the most painful.

“Honestly, I never imagined, you know, the feeling of leading two sets to zero against Novak and playing like that and have the lead of the match like that and be forced to retire is something that, of course, I will never imagine. Of course, it’s really painful,” he said.

“Honestly, I played almost all the second set like that, but I could play, because especially with the serve, it was helping me a lot, and I was trying a little bit to push from the baseline, which I was feeling the ball pretty well today.

“So I was managing, you know, to try to hold there and to stay and try to, you know, don’t really look at the pain. But then afterwards, as I said, the first question, when I sit down for three minutes and I kind of, not relax, but kind of stayed longer in the wait position, the pain immediately started to increase.

“Then afterwards, I was feeling also – especially when I was going with the forehand on the open stance, I was feeling that I could not, you know, come back to the middle and then started, you know, as you saw, I could not really play. So, you know, unfortunately, it was no chance and no way to tape it, to do something, you know, to continue to play.”

Given his injury history, Musetti has been keeping an eye on his body. But he had no idea why he faced a new setback in Wednesday’s quarter-final. “We have done all the exams and tests before starting the season to see and to try and prevent these kind of injuries, and then they say nothing came out, so I honestly have no words to describe how I’m feeling right now and how tough is for me this injury in this moment,” he explained.

Musetti picked up a similar injury when he retired in the French Open semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz last year and added: “It was the same leg, because it was the right one, but I don’t feel it’s at the same point. But it’s tough to say now, because of course, it’s going to be – I’m going to have to check for sure better and try to see and to clear out what it is. Also to try to think about a process of rehabilitation and, you know, recovery.”