Over the past couple of days, fans and insiders have been talking a lot about Novak Djokovic's injury at the 2025 Australian Open. The 24-time Grand Slam champion seemed very close to retirement during his quarterfinal match against Carlos Alcaraz and he himself admitted that if he had also lost the second set he would probably have retired.
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The former world number 1 found the strength to prevail in four sets, significantly raising his level in the second part of the match and crumbling the certainties of the young Spanish champion who began to have doubts.
The Serbian legend turned the odds around and reached his 50th Grand Slam semi-final, as well as giving the whole world a clear demonstration of his greatness. Despite his extraordinary feat, the current world number 7 has received a lot of criticism for faking his injury in order to distract Carlitos.
John McEnroe also questioned the extent of Nole's injury and the controversy continued on social media.
Paul McNamee on Nole's injury
In an interview with 'The Age', former AO director Paul McNamee admitted that he was surprised by the criticism of Djokovic after Jannik Sinner had done the same thing the previous day.
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The world No.1 had suffered an illness during his match against Rune, before leaving the court for several minutes and returning to play his best tennis in the third and fourth sets.
I cant believe people are pointing to Novak when Jannik did that the day before.
I mean that 11 and a half minutes medical time out give me a break McNamee said.
He also added: Im not a big fan of medical timeouts, Ive got to say. Unless theres a modesty issue, I think it should happen on court.
And youve got three minutes, and thats it.
I dont think its fair to the opponent to stop a match for 10 minutes, even five minutes. Its meant to be three minutes and it should be policed strictly.
