John McEnroe and Alexander Zverev have led criticism against the Australian Open crowd that booed Novak Djokovic after his shock retirement on Friday. Djokovic abruptly called it quits in shocking scenes after losing the first set against Zverev in a tiebreaker, and later revealed he suffered a torn hamstring.

It came after Djokovic injured his leg in his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz. There were unsavoury scenes as the 10-time Australian Open champion left the court, with many booing him for retiring.

Speaking in commentary for Channel 9, McEnroe savaged the treatment he received. “They can’t possibly be booing him. Please!” the American said. “He’s won this 10 times, for god’s sakes. Unreal.”

McEnroe later said: “He’s won this 10 times. I mean, come on. I mean, clearly something was up. The guy is a battler. I mean, him and Rafa [Nadal] have dug deeper than any two players I have seen.

“… So to do that [boo] because he decided that he couldn’t go on after what he’s done here I thought was absolutely ludicrous, honestly. That was almost as depressing as seeing the end of the match.”

Alexander Zverev’s brilliant act after Novak Djokovic retirement

Zverev showed his class during an on-court interview with Jim Courier when he put the booing spectators in their place. “The very first thing I want to say is please, guys, don’t boo a player when he goes out with an injury,” the German said.

“I know everyone paid for tickets and everyone wants to see hopefully a great five-set match. But … Novak Djokovic is someone who has given this sport for the past 20 years absolutely everything of his life.”

Zverev admitted he was as surprised as everyone when Djokovic called it quits. “I actually thought it was quite a high-level first set,” he said. “But, I mean like, of course, there are some difficulties and the longer you continue playing then maybe the worse it gets.

“In the tiebreak, maybe he was not moving as well as in the entire first set but I thought we had extremely long rallies, extremely difficult, physical also rallies. In the tiebreak, I did see him struggle maybe a bit more.”

Novak Djokovic speaks out after injury retirement

Djokovic explained the situation in his post-match press conference, saying: “I did everything I possibly can to basically manage the muscle tear that I have and, yeah, medications and I guess the strapping and the physio work helped to some extent today.

“But yeah, towards the end of that first set, I just started feeling more and more pain, and it was too much to handle for me at the moment. So, yeah, unfortunate ending, but I tried.”

Despite showing little signs of the injury towards the end of the clash against Alcaraz, Djokovic was not seen on the practice courts on Thursday.

He then entered Rod Laver Arena at around 3.00pm for his showdown with Alexander Zverev with lots of talk surrounding his strapped leg. Djokovic held his opening service game after producing an amazing recovery shot. Immediately, tennis great McEnroe claimed Djokovic looked good with his trademark movement from side-to-side on show.

“That movement from Novak was impressive. Didn’t look like he is hurt,’ McEnroe said. Fellow America commentator JimCourier agreed: “It did not”.

Tennis world condemns Australian Open fans for booing

After the third game, Zverev had missed a number of break point opportunities. And McEnroe claimed there appeared nothing wrong with Djokovic’s movement. And it was playing on Zverev. “Not sure what the game plan is, to see his movement. But it is pretty clear to me he is moving well, Novak,” McEnroe said of the champion.

However, much to the surprise of fans, Djokovic retired immediately after the first set tiebreak. McEnroe admitted he was stunned at the retirement, considering Djokovic was moving so well. The Serbian lost the tiebreak 7-5, but went straight up to Zverev to tell him he couldn’t continue. Some fans proceeded to boo Djokovic for calling it quits, which prompted a strong reaction from Zverev and those watching.