Djokovic gets out of jail and into Melbourne semis as injured Musetti forced to retire

MELBOURNE, Jan 28 : Novak Djokovic continued his quest for a record-extending 11th Australian Open title and standalone 25th Grand Slam crown, but only after a cruel twist of fate for Lorenzo Musetti, who quit their quarter-final due to injury on Wednesday holding a comfortable lead.

While the stars may seem to be aligning for Djokovic in his bid for more major glory, the road will only be more rocky after Jannik Sinner beat Ben Shelton to book a blockbuster semi-final against him, and Carlos Alcaraz potentially in the final.

Like Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek arrived in Melbourne chasing a career Grand Slam - the feat of winning all four of the sport's biggest trophies - but her bid went up in smoke after a defeat by Elena Rybakina earlier in the day.

Jessica Pegula had little trouble as she reached the Melbourne Park semi-finals for the first time after dashing fellow American Amanda Anisimova's hopes of reaching three straight major finals.

The drama in the day session was reserved for the afternoon match and Djokovic arrived fresh for the battle with fifth seed Musetti after getting a walkover on Sunday from injured Czech Jakub Mensik.

The Serb made a fast start but it was then one-way traffic as the artistic Musetti showed his full range of strokes and bagged the opening two sets, before the Italian pulled up holding the upper part of his right leg at the start of the third.

Musetti looked to soldier on after receiving treatment, but lasted only one more game and he threw in the towel leading 6-4 6-3 1-3 as stunned fans at the Rod Laver Arena let out a gasp and Djokovic quietly heaved a sigh of relief.

"I don't know what to say, except that I feel really sorry for him and he was a far better player," Djokovic said.

"I was on my way