No one was speaking. Not even breathing. No one in the Rod Laver Arena dared to make the slightest noise as Lorenzo Musetti left the court accompanied by his agent, Edoardo Artaldi. He limped towards the locker rooms, and with each step, the audience watching him felt their hearts break a little more.
It was the Italian's day. His day, his big day. Just minutes before, he was playing the best tennis of his life, dominating a legend like Novak Djokovic 6-4 and 6-3, heading towards his first semifinals at the Australian Open. At 23, he was undoubtedly the strongest candidate to become the third party after Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. But at some point, at the beginning of the third set, he felt a pain in his right thigh, and everything darkened.
The tournament physiotherapist came in to try to help, but it was to no avail. "It's your body, it's up to you," his coach, the Spanish José Perlas, told him. In the end, he had no choice but to retire. Last year, at Roland Garros, something similar happened to him in the quarterfinals against Alcaraz, but this time it was even more painful.
A few meters from his bench, Djokovic didn't know what to do or say. He will play in the semifinals against the winner of the match between Sinner and Ben Shelton, although for a while he couldn't believe it himself. "I don't know what to say except that I'm very sorry for Lorenzo. He was playing much better than me, I was going home tonight. Lorenzo had everything under control, he should have been the winner, he was very unlucky," said the Serbian, who reaches the penultimate stage of the Australian tournament for the thirteenth time in his career.
Musetti's dominance raised doubts about Djokovic's prodigious longevity. After not having to play the round of 16 due to Jakub Mensik's injury, the Serbian appeared fresh on the central court of the Australian Open, but still was surpassed by a faster, more powerful, and more refined opponent. "I made four winners and 40 errors. That's what Lorenzo makes you do: he forces you to play, to win the same point many times. I didn't play in the round of 16 and I made it through the quarterfinals like this, so I have to double my thanks to God tonight," confessed the winner of 24 Grand Slam titles.