By james art 
Howard Fendrich Associated Press
Melbourne, Australia – It might be tempting to write off Novak Djokovic at this point, to think he could be closer than ever to being made to compete for Grand Slam titles and closer than ever to retirement , where his biggest rivals—Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray—already reside.
Perhaps those kinds of thoughts are natural in the immediate vicinity of Djokovic’s exit from the Australian Open semifinals on Friday with a torn leg muscle. He was booed off the court when he retired immediately after dropping the first set against Alexander Zverev, an abrupt end to Djokovic’s pursuit of an 11th Melbourne Park trophy and an unprecedented 25th major championship overall.
It was the second time in the last four that Djokovic has relinquished his place in the latter stages of the bracket. At last year’s French Open, he tore the meniscus in his right knee during a fourth-round win and withdrew before the quarterfinals, after which he needed surgery.
Also relevant to the conversation: Djokovic will turn 38 before the next major, which begins at Roland Garros in late May. That was Nadal’s age when he retired in November. Murray, a week older than Djokovic, stopped playing last August (and coaches Djokovic in Melbourne). Federer’s last Grand Slam match came when he was 39, although he didn’t announce he was done until the following year.
“How worried are you? I don’t know. It’s not like I’m worried, (when) we approach every Grand Slam, whether I’m going to get injured or not. But the statistics have been against me in a way the last few years,” he admitted. “So it’s true that (I’ve) been getting injured a lot over the last few years. I don’t know exactly what’s causing it. Maybe a couple of different factors.”
What Djokovic said next is sure to make his fans happy and his opponents wary.
“I’m going to keep going. I’m going to keep trying to win more shots,” Djokovic said. “And as long as I feel like I want to come to terms with it all, I’ll be around.”
Note that Djokovic was injured late in the first set of his previous match against 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, a four-time major champion who is ranked No.1. However, Djokovic played well enough to erase the deficit and overcome Alcaraz in four sets.
Consider this, too: Less than 1 1/2 months after last season’s knee surgery, Djokovic made it all the way to the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Alcaraz. Three weeks after that, Djokovic went all the way to the final of the Paris Olympics, where he beat Alcaraz to finally collect the gold medal he had long wanted to bring home to Serbia.
Djokovic was unable to give a timeline on Friday for how long he will be sidelined now. He wasn’t quite ready to commit to a return to the Australian Open when asked if it could be his last appearance, saying: “There’s a chance. Who knows? I’ll just have to see how the season goes.
There is plenty of evidence that it is a mistake to consider Djokovic.
Still, there will be those who doubt Djokovic’s health and longevity.
There have already been such questions in some quarters, in fact, however pointless: on-air remarks by a commentator working for the home broadcaster about Djokovic being overrated and overrated have caused a stir during Week 1 of this Australian Open.
No one who knows anything about Djokovic or tennis would use those terms.
“Novak has done absolutely everything he can do on the tennis court for the last 20 years,” said Zverev, who will be looking for his first Grand Slam title when he meets defending champion Janik Sinner in Sunday’s final at Rod Laver Arena.
“He won this tournament with a tear in his stomach, where most players can’t even continue to play. He won this tournament with a tear in his knee,” Zverev said. “He’s a 10-time champion. We all just have to respect that, in a way, because there’s nobody in the history of this sport who’s won and who’s done as much as him.”