Lorenzo Musetti asserts "no chance" of further playing through leg issue in painful AO ending "I never imagined"

Lorenzo Musetti understandably had “no words” to sum up how he was feeling Wednesday in Melbourne after being forced to end his Australian Open campaign due to injury with a two-set lead on 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.

The No. 5 seed shared with press that he had played through the issue during the second set, but once sat for an extended period during a medical timeout, the pain took a turn for the worse.

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Musetti ultimately stopped the quarterfinal leading Djokovic, 6-4, 6-3, 1-3, and serving at 15-40.

“I felt even more and was getting higher and higher the level of the pain,” he reflected.

“Especially when I was going with the forehand on the open stance, I was feeling that I could not come back to the middle. So, unfortunately, (there) was no chance and no way to tape it, to do something to continue to play.”

The 23-year-old had been 1-9 against Djokovic coming in, narrowly losing their most recent encounter in last November’s Athens final. This marked the second time Musetti found himself up two sets on Djokovic in a major match, with the first occurring during the pair’s maiden clash in the round of 16 at 2021 Roland Garros. That duel ended with the Italian retiring down 4-0 in the fifth set.

“I never imagined the feeling of leading two sets to zero against Novak, playing like that, have the lead of the match like that and be forced to retire. Of course, it's really painful,” he said of the latest experience.

I will do all the exams when I will come back home and, of course, I will update you guys.

Asked if there was any similarity between this latest injury and the one in his right leg that forced him to prematurely end his 2025 Roland Garros semifinal with Carlos Alcaraz, Musetti didn’t feel the pain was coming from the same point. He did express “I'm kind of secure that this is a tear, unfortunately.”

Musetti had been in the running to become world No. 3 for the first time and celebrated completing a career set of Grand Slam quarterfinals with his victory over Taylor Fritz. Djokovic, whose right foot needed treatment for blisters, awaits two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner.

The No. 2 seed dispatched eighth-seeded Ben Shelton with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory in a 2025 semifinal rematch. Sinner notably won last year's Wimbledon title after Grigor Dimitrov had to abandon a two-set lead in their fourth-round encounter due to a pectoral muscle tear.