Italian tennis player Lorenzo Musetti sustained a leg injury that led to a “painful” exit to his Australian Open quarterfinal match against 10-time champion Novak Djokovic. The 23-year-old was in the lead after winning the first two sets 6-4, 6-3 when, despite taking a medical timeout for treatment, he was forced to retire in the third set after the pain became too unbearable to endure. Musetti later shared an update on what happened during the postgame press conference, saying that he has a good idea on the type of injury that took him out.
Musetti believes he knows what kind of injury he sustained in Australian Open
Lorenzo Musetti couldn’t imagine the scenario that he would need to exit the match with an injury while winning against the fourth-ranked seed in the tournament.
“Honestly, I never imagined the feeling of leading two sets to zero against Novak and playing like that, having the lead of the match like that, and then being forced to retire,” he shared. “It’s something I would never imagine, and of course it’s really painful.”
He admitted that the leg injury was sustained during the second set of the match before realizing that the pain was not subsiding as he continued playing through the rest of the set.
“I felt it at the beginning of the second set,” Musetti explained. “I felt there was something strange in my right leg. I continued to play because I was playing really, really well, but I was feeling that the pain was increasing and the problem was not going away.”
Despite the growing discomfort, the Italian player relied on his serve and shots from the baseline. “I played almost all the second set like that,” he said. “The serve was helping me a lot, and I was trying to push a little bit from the baseline. I was feeling the ball pretty well today, so I was managing to stay there and not really look at the pain.”
However, during a medical timeout called by Djokovic, the situation began to worsen. “When I sat down for three minutes and stayed longer in the same position, the pain immediately started to increase. Then I was feeling it especially when I was hitting the forehand in the open stance. I couldn’t come back to the middle. At that point, I could not really play.”
A reporter at the press conference noted that Musetti had to end his run at the 2025 French Open due to a leg injury as well and asked whether this new injury had any similarities to that, but he felt that it was different. Because of the location of the pain in his leg, he wasn’t able to use tape to help stabilize the injury.
“To tape it was a little bit too high, so it was impossible,” he explained. “I feel personally that I know my body, and I’m kind of secure that this is a tear, unfortunately. I’m not a doctor, but I don’t know if it’s the adductor or the iliopsoas, it’s over there. Of course, I will do all the exams when I come back home, and of course I will update you guys.”
Musetti later clarified, “It was the same leg, the right one, but I don’t feel it’s at the same point. It’s tough to say now because I’m going to have to check properly and clear out what it is, and also think about the approach to rehabilitation and recovery.”
Djokovic, who had already received a free pass to the quarterfinals when Jakub Mensik withdrew due to an abdominal injury, reacted to Musetti’s injury during an on-court interview. “I don’t know what to say except that I feel really sorry for him,” he said, per ESPN. “He was the far better player. I was on my home tonight. These kinds of things happen in sport. It happened to me a few times. … [Musetti] should have been the a winner today, no doubt.”
