"Can't watch this"; "Shameful lack of humanity" - Fans outraged as Novak Djokovic's retirement draws unsavory reaction from Australian Open crowd

Novak Djokovic retired from his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev at the 2025 Australian Open on Friday, January 24. The Serb dropped the first set of his encounter against the German in a tiebreaker and subsequently called it quits over right knee niggles.

Sadly, as the 10-time champion walked off the court, he received some jeers from the Melbourne crowd, which irked the tennis universe.

This week, the 24-time Major winner has admittedly been suffering from issues in his right knee that required surgery last year. The seventh seed's knee issues flared up following his quarterfinal win against Carlos Alcaraz. In his bout against Zverev, he played a bit dodgily but managed to take the first set to a tiebreaker.

Novak Djokovic lost the set after some fight though, missing an easy volley at set point down. Upon his retirement exit, while he received applause from a large percentage of the local crowd, he was booed by a few.

The above incident left a sour taste in many fans' mouths, going by their reaction on social media. One fan implored the Australian Open crowd to do better as they wrote on X:

"Can’t watch this. Disrespectful to boo players. And especially a champ like Djokovic. Do better Melbourne. Do better."

Another fan, meanwhile, went as far as to suggest that the crowd was out of turn to boo the 24-time Major winner when he was suffering from an injury.

"Absolute disgrace, booing a man who won 24 grand slam titles who has an injury, a fellow human being who is hurt. Shameful lack of humanity on display."

Here are a few more reactions from social media:

"Pathetic from the crowd," one fan wrote.

"Classless crowd," another fan wrote.

"First they accused him of faking injury, now they are accusing him for being injured and retiring," one fan wrote.

"Inhumane behavior from the crowd," another fan insisted.

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Alexander Zverev on Novak Djokovic's retirement: "Please guys, don't boo a player when he goes out with injury"

Alexander Zverev comforts Novak Djokovic following Serb's retirement in Melbourne (Source: Getty)

Alexander Zverev, meanwhile, hit out at the Melbourne crowd during his on-court interview following his last-four win in Melbourne. The World No. 2 claimed that while he understood their grievance with Novak Djokovic's retirement, the 24-time Major winner didn't deserve such disrespect regardless.

"Please guys, don't boo a player when he goes out with injury," Alexander Zverev said during his post-match on-court interview.

"I know that everybody paid for tickets and everybody wants to see hopefully a great five-set match and everything but you've got to understand, Novak Djokovic is somebody that has given this sport for the past 20 years absolutely everything of his life," he added.

Zverev will face either World No. 1 Jannik Sinner or 21st-seeded Ben Shelton in the championship match of the 2025 Australian Open. The German will be eager to turn around his 0-2 win/loss record in the Major finals.