Novak Djokovic Retired From the Australian Open After Suffering a Muscle Tear

Thanks to 24 Grand Slam titles, Novak Djokovic has already cemented his status as one of the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport. Novak will not be adding the 2025 Australian Open to his list of titles, though, as he had to retire from the tournament.

Following the news that Novak forfeited his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev, many want to know why Novak decided to walk away, and whether he's done playing tennis for good. Here's what we know.

Novak retired from the Australian Open, but he's not walking away from tennis altogether. He had to resign from his semifinal match because he's dealing with a muscle tear that made it impossible for him to continue playing.

"I did everything I possibly can to manage the muscle tear that I had," Novak told reporters after stepping off the court.

"Medications and the strap and the physio work helped to some extent today, [but] toward the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain. It was getting worse and worse. It was just too much to handle for me at the moment," he continued. "I knew even if I won the first set it was going to be a huge uphill battle for me to stay physically fit enough to stay with him in the rallies for another, god knows, two, three, four hours."

When Novak stepped off the court, he received boos from fans upset that he didn't want to continue with the match. Given his injury, though, it makes sense that he didn't want to overwork himself. Alexander, who advanced to the tournament finals because of Novak's retirement, said that the fans were being too hard on a player who wanted to play, but physically couldn't.

"The very first thing I want to say is, please, guys, don't boo a player when he goes out with injury," he said. "I know that everybody paid for tickets and wants to see hopefully a five-set match. He has won this tournament with an abdominal tear, won this tournament with a hamstring injury. So please show some respect."

Novak sustained the injury during his quarterfinal victory against Carlos Alcaraz. He also withdrew from the French Open last year with a knee issue.

"It is true that, you know, getting injured quite a bit the last few years. I don't know what exactly is the reason for that," he said. "It's not like I'm worrying approaching every Grand Slam now whether I'm going to get injured or not, but statistics are against me, in a way, in the last couple of years."

Novak, who is now 37, said that he isn't going anywhere, even though he acknowledged that his body is no longer as cooperative as it once was.

"I'll keep striving to win more Slams and as long as I feel that I want to put up with all of this, I'll be around," he said.