Novak Djokovic shuts down 'Faking Injury' claims with unusual social media post

Tennis legend Novak Djokovic shocked everyone by withdrawing from the Australian Open Grand Slam semi-finals citing a muscle injury. The Tennis great was on the road to becoming the 11-time Australian Open and 25-time Grand Slam winner. But his fate turned against him as he suffered a massive injury during his match against Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals.

Faking an Injury?

After losing the first set against the Spaniard, Novak took a medical timeout and the fans started booing him. Many people thought he was acting his injury to break the momentum of Alcaraz. After returning from the timeout, Djokovic won the next four sets and won the game.

Joining the fans many sports experts also claimed Novak was faking an injury during the game as Alcaraz took the game away from him on the first set. But everyone went speechless when they saw Djokovic withdraw from the match against Alexander Zverev in the semis. The serbian was struggling with a lot of pain and had already taken painkillers. 

In the 2023 Australian Open finals he won the Grand Slam with the same kind of injury. But this time the pain was too much as he couldn't tolerate it anymore and exited the match after losing the first set to the German. It was visible during the game that Novak wasn’t 100% fit. After he retired from the game fans started booing the 10-time Australian Open winner and he gestured thumbs up and went away.

Also Read: Why does the Australian Open offer lower prize money than the other Grand Slams in tennis?

Shuts down 'Faking Injury' Critics

Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury “experts” out there. pic.twitter.com/ZO5mBtw9zB

— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 25, 2025

During the post-match interview, Zverev asked the fans to behave with some respect to the legend and requested them not to 'boo' a player who had given so much to the game of tennis in the last 20 years. Now Novak himself came to his defence by posting an unusual pic on his social media pages to counter the claims of fake injury. 

Although the legend has nothing to prove to anyone, the outside noise was too much this time, and he was forced to prove his critics wrong about his injury. He posted an MRI scan of his legs saying “thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury “experts” out there.”

The 2025 Australian Open hurt Djokovic very deeply because during the tournament an Australian media personnel called Tony Jones mocked Novak and his serbian fans in a live session. The serbian Protested by not giving a post-match interview to the channel. He demanded an apology. This year could be the last time we see Novak playing tennis because he will turn 38.

Also Read: 'He has big issues'- Jannik Sinner on Novak Djokovic's Australian Open 2025 Retirement.