Novak Djokovic booed as he pulls out after one set of Melbourne semi-final

Novak Djokovic left Rod Laver Arena to a chorus of boos after dramatically pulling the plug on his Australian Open campaign a set into his semi-final against Alexander Zverev.

There had been doubt about the Serbian’s fitness until he took to the court after he suffered a left leg injury during his quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday.

Djokovic did not practise on site on Wednesday then cancelled a session on Thursday, warming up only shortly before the match.

“I did everything I possibly can to manage the muscle tear that I had,” said the 37-year-old, whose wait for a record-breaking 25th grand slam title goes on.

“Medications, the strap and the physio work helped to some extent today. But towards the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain. It was too much to handle for me at the moment. Unfortunate ending, but I tried.

“Even if I won the first set, it’s 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 what, two, three, four hours. I don’t think I had that, unfortunately, today in the tank.”

Djokovic had heavy strapping on his thigh but appeared to be moving well, sprinting to the net during the first game after a Zverev shot flicked the net.

A cagey set full of long rallies saw both men have chances to break, with Zverev unable to take five break points across two games but recovering from 0-40 in the fourth game.

It was nip and tuck in the tie-break as well until Djokovic netted an easy volley at 5-6 to hand Zverev the set after 80 minutes.

It seemed like the contest was just getting started, but instead Djokovic headed straight to Zverev to shake hands before walking off court to a mixture of jeers and