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January 24, 2025 12 mins

Controversial scenes last night at Rod Laver arena as Novak Djokovic retired after just the first set in his semifinal against Alexander Zverev, shocking the crowd.  

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal Jannik Sinner had little resistance as he cruised to a straight sets win over American Ben Shelton. 

Kiwi tennis journalist Dave Worsley was in the crowd, and joined Piney to discuss exactly what happened and what we can expect from the Men's and Women's final. 

Worsley told Piney that in the press conference after the match, Djokovic said that maybe he could’ve kept going, but he wouldn’t have lasted that much longer. 

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And a muscle tear has forced Novak Djokovic to retire
hurt from the Australian Tennis Open semi finals six four.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I think this is it, This is it against It's over.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
And it is a stunned Rod Labor Arena. Yeah, the
twenty four time major winer walking off rod Labor Arena
with an injured leg after losing the opening set against
German second seed Alexander Zverev and a tie breaks. Verev
will face top seed and defending champion Yannick Sinner in
tomorrow night's final after he dispatched Ben Shelton in straight

(00:53):
sets game Sinner, it will be a third major sixteen
your attempt to defend his titleic sesshas h off. He
maximized the moments today against Ben shouting and found a

(01:14):
way to win like Opera champions. Still so the top
two seeds in the men's final and the women's final tonight.
It is Arena Sablenka, two time defending champion against the
American Madison Keys. Let's bring in long time tennis correspondent
Dave Worsley, who's at his empteenth Australian Open. You might
even be able to tell us how many have been
to Dave.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
What number is this? This is twenty six, so it
makes me pretty old.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
I guess well, I'll tell you what. It's a terrific,
terrific run. Now, the crowd were booing Novak Djokovic after
he retired, hurt. What's going on there?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, it's interesting the crowd this year, it seems to
have got more feral. Certainly for the early matches with
a lot of Australian players, they were got pretty raucous
and pretty feral in many ways, Whereas say the French
crowd when the French planned playing, they were fair, the Brazilians,
et cetera. But the Aussie crowds certainly were well. They
weren't great in the first week and now in the

(02:14):
second week as we got to witness in the semi
finals last night. See, I don't know, maybe they just
really wanted more tennis for their money that they're paid.
But yeah, that was a bit off. You could tell that.
You know, he wasn't just pulling out for the fun
of it. He's not that sort of person. He's won
at ten times, and as Zadev said afterwards, on court,
you know, showed a bit of respect. He's a twenty

(02:35):
four time champion ten times at the Australian Open, and
he's pulled out with an injury, not because he didn't
feel like playing.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, and that's exactly it. He's played there injured before,
hasn't he. He's gone quite deep with injury before. So
I think you're probably right, David's people having paid you
money for their tickets and wanting, you know, a five
setter or at least a three setter. Anyway, What was
Jokovic's demeanor like afterwards.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, in the press conference, he made a couple of
good points. He said, well, you know, okay, there was
some billing, but he said, I understand that those people
paid a lot of money and wanted more tennis, and
they always want more tennis. They don't want a three
cent that they want a five, and even when it
goes five, they wanted to keep on going. But you know,
that's just one of those things. He said, Look, I
couldn't play anymore. And he was asked, well, what about

(03:22):
if you had won that first set, would you have
been able to keep going. Would it sort of kept
you going a bit more? He said no, not really.
He said, you know, maybe I could have, but yeah,
I wouldn't have lasted that much longer, he said, had
an injury. We all saw it in the previous match
against Carlos Alcarez. He was struggling a little bit then
and managed to come through a great battle there. But
this time he just said, well, I don't know if

(03:43):
I'll be back either. He was asked if he had
come back again, is this it for this brand up?
He said, we'll see. It was very much, we'll see,
And then he was asked, well, what about your coaching
relationship with Andy Murray, how's that going to go? And
he said, well, we'll see on that as well. So
everything is very much up in the air for Novakcenter.

(04:03):
No accident was that Jocovich Sorry, we'll think about young
accent as well. Yeah, everything up in the air and
unfortunate way to finish. Yeah, it just people did want more,
and even Zev said on court as well that he
was surprised. He didn't think that that Djokovic was going
to pull out.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Just before we move on from Novak Djokovic, I guess
it's possible, Dave that his final number might be twenty four.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I would say very possible. I can't see him winning
the French Open at all Wimbledon, for it's probably his
best opportunity. Well, from now on, US Open has just
drawn out drag of a tournament where you just feel
absolutely exhausted and you've got to win your seven matches
and it's just tough, and I can't see him winning that.

(04:53):
We're in, you know, it's a bit shorter matches, shorter
type of play. But even then, well it was al
KaAZ who's won it the last couple of times and
beaten Djokovic. I don't know. I think it is going
to be twenty four. It's going to be his number,
and it's just well, hey, it's superb getting to twenty four,
particularly when he was racing against Federer and the Dale

(05:13):
to actually get there and having to really compete against
those two. But now he's up against young players, well,
younger players. Zadis twenty seven, you've got our Kaz at
what is he twenty one, and you've got Center at
twenty two, twenty three, so you've got those sort of
players and then others like Shelton coming through as well,
who are going to create some damage. And there's a
whole lot of others around about nineteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Alright, let's talk about the German second seed, Alexander Zverev
into his third major final. He's never won one. He's
been around since what twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, Dave, He's
made semi finals. This is his first Australian Open final.
What chance do you give Alexander Veriev are finally breaking

(05:58):
this major duck of.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
His Well, there's always been this pressure on them that
he had it in the US Open twan twenty against
Dominic team. I think he was one or two points
away and he had it within his grasp when they lost.
In stead of collapse, he struggled since then, he made
the French Open final and I think that was against
the day. It's always against the day at the French

(06:19):
and again struggled there. He has had his opportunities and
the pressure kept on coming on to him and making
it so difficult to actually win. And he was so
consistent in making the quarters or the semi finals. However,
he just struggled to actually capitalize on that on his
skills and then he sort of fell away a little bit.
He's come back very strong in the later part of

(06:39):
the year and so far at the Australian opened as well. Really,
I wouldn't say his cruised through, but he certainly played
extremely strong to make it through to the final. Can
he do it against a Sinner? Yeah? I think you've
got a favorite Center obviously defending champion, and he's had
a couple of little legal injuries and then also a

(07:01):
bit of cramp last night that I think I'm still
going sixty forty Center over a Zaidev who has a
lot of ability, but I just think the mental pressure
will tell on him.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Second seem me last night, let's look at that young
Nick Center, top seed against Ben Shelton. The rank outside
a twenty first seated American seven six, so seven two
in the tie break then six two six two. That
looks pretty comprehensive. Was it as comprehensive on court as that?

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Well, the first set was exciting. That's what you get
with Ben Shelton, you get excitement, you get him well,
he just felt collected center with a servant. I think
it was about two hundred and fourteen case. The ball
just kept on aiming straight out center. He had to
must get out of the way, and that's what you get.
That was a second serve actually, So you know, you
get these big serves, you get them trying to volley,

(07:48):
you get them trying to do all sorts of things
and makes it exciting to watch. However, keeping up that
level against someone who is at a different level its
now in center is difficult. And this is the thing,
is level dropped away. He started being a bit passive
against someone like Cinner. You've got to be aggressive. That
doesn't mean going for a big shot every time, but
that means been aggressive in the point. If you get

(08:10):
passive against Senner, he will just deal to you as
what happened in the second and third sets, and that's
you know. Senna is good. Shelton is good. He's made
the what was it the semifinals of the us O
in twenty twenty three loss to Jokovic. He's got plenty
of potential. He just needs to sometimes understand when and
how he should be playing his shots, particularly when you're
up against someone like Senna, who is just he's just

(08:34):
so good, all.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Right, So first against second in terms of seedings for
the men's final. That's tomorrow night Tonight the women's singles
final from nine to thirty New Zealand time on Rod
Labor Arena. Arena Sabolenka two time defending champion. She's only
dropped one set in the entire tournament, up against Madison Keys,
who I think for many was probably a surprise when
over Egis Fiontic, maybe even a surprise to herself in

(08:59):
the semi final. Can Medicine Keys lift one more time?
Because Arena Sabolenka looks imperious to me, Dave.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, she does. She's hitting the ball so hard we
could be in for a little bit of a well
we won't call it a bashing fest, but certainly a
very hard hitting You know, I can hit it hard.
Can you hit it that hard? That's what we're probably
going to get tonight because that's the way that Keys
plays as well, where Zigos Frontek is more of a counterpuncher,
quick movement, and you know, it makes it a little
bit more difficult for Sebolenka to actually hit the big

(09:29):
winning shots. I watched Sebolanka practice a couple of nights ago,
and up close her main strength that she was her
main thing she was trying to do was just bash
a serve back as hard as possible, and I was thinking, well,
there's not much subtlety there, but you know, that's the
way she plays. And having discussions with other media about

(09:50):
does she have a second type of game, like a
plan B to hit the ball a little bit, a
little bit softer, change the pace, and certainly the debate, well,
I was fifty to fifty on that one. I'm certainly
not so keen on her actually being able to hit
the ball with a different type of pace, changing the pace.
I think she's actually just got a little bit one
dimensional but it's working. This is the thing she's winning

(10:12):
with power. She's doing a Serena Williams after Serena Williams, dominating,
bullying other players on the court, whether they're with their power.
So you've got to look at her as a favorite medicine.
Key's a good player, runner up the US Open to
Sloan Stevens back in twenty seventeen. I think it was
that was when Keys should have won it, but had
a major injury, could have even walk and she should

(10:33):
have won that. So you know, she's a good player.
She made the semifinals here. I think it was in
two thousand and fifteen or a long time ago when
she was quite young. So she's a decent player on
hard court. But I believe that Saberlenka will win tonight,
all right.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Just before you go, Erin, Rautliff made a couple of
semi finals and the women's doubles and the mixed doubles
alongside Michael Venus and the mixed doubles and with her
partner Gabby Dobrowski in the women's doubles. A shame not
to see Aeron Rautliff make it through the be least
one of those two.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah, that's right. I mean second time semi final here
at the Ossie Open in the woman's doubles with Dobrowski.
In fact, she lost to Ostapenko last year as well,
actually in the semis, so yeah, tough pier. They came
up against Ostapenko and Sue Sai, both extremely unorthodox when
it comes to their play, but considering that that Dobrowski

(11:28):
and Ratliffe hadn't played until this tournament, they struggled the
first couple of matches but still won them, won a
quarter final easily and then through the Semis it was
Almos gonna be tough, lost in three sets, So I
think they can be pretty pleased considering what the two
of them have been through that Dobrowski of course with
their breast cancer and we had Routlift with a major

(11:48):
rib injury where she basically couldn't pick up a racket
for a month or so. So yeah, they were pretty
pleased to make it to the Semis. Obviously didn't want
to lose, and they're up three love in the first
set and somehow managed to lose it in the tie break.
But considering finally they've been they've played together in five
Grand Slams and their worst effort is quarter finals at

(12:09):
the US Open last year, two semifinals, a runner up
and a win. So not a bad effort I have
for Dobrawskian rautleft absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Dave, Thanks so much, mate, enjoy the remainder of your
twenty sixth Australian Open. Appreciate you joining us on weekend
sport this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
No worries planning. I'm feeling old when you're sad like that.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
I'll always be older than you, Dave. Dave Worsley from
Melbourne Park where the Australian openers into its final stages.
So women's singles final tonight Arena Sablenka against Madison Keys
from nineth thirty in New Zealand time, and then tomorrow
night it's one v two in terms of the seedings.
Can Alexander's Veriev finally win his first major or will
it be back to back Australian opens for the number

(12:48):
one sentate Italian Yannick Singer. That's tomorrow night from around
about the same time.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk zed B weekends from midday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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