Novak Djokovic’s bid for a seventh Australian Open continues after he reached the semi-finals with Kei Nishikori retiring 6-1 4-1 down. The world number one will now play Lucas Pouille on Friday evening for a place in the final.
The Japanese star showed effects from his epic week in Melbourne where he was forced to a fifth set in three of his four matches leading up to his quarter-final.
It was a run which included winning two last set super tiebreaks against Ivo Karlovic and Pablo Carreno Busta but he had no energy left to take on Djokovic.
After the match Nishikori revealed it was a right leg injury, “Before the match, I was okay. Of course, I wasn’t, like, fresh, fresh. I thought I was going to be okay,” the former US Open finalist explained.
“After third game or fourth game when I was serving, I felt pretty heavy to my right leg. After that I couldn’t really bend my knees and couldn’t jump up. Yeah, I decided to stop.”
As for the world number one he still played some good tennis only dropping two of the twelve games played as he heads into the semi-finals with a lot of energy in the reserves.
This was important for the six time champion considering his previous two matches were four set matches against Denis Shapovalov and Daniil Medvedev.
After the match Djokovic said it feels good to be back in the final four after many injuries, “Feels great. This has been my most successful Grand Slam throughout my career, the first one that I won back in 2008,” Djokovic explained.
“Yeah, past two years have been a bit tough with the elbow injury and everything. Over the past 10 years, I’ve had plenty of success here. Obviously that has helped to kickstart the season in a great fashion, obviously served as a great confidence boost for what was coming up after that.”
The Serb will look to reach his seventh Australian Open final on Friday evening when he takes on Lucas Pouille after the Frenchman stunned Milos Raonic in four sets.
A showdown between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in the final is everybody’s dream final and for now that match is still on the cards.
The Spaniard will play Stefanos Tsitsipas in the other semi-final on Thursday evening.
