Medvedev surprisingly retires out of blue after losing 2nd set to Djokovic

Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic played one of the best matches of this year in the 2022 Astana Open semi-finals, but it ended very weirdly.

Medvedev and the 21-time Grand Slam champion met ten times before their meeting at the ATP 500 event in Astana. The more experienced player won six of those matches.

Ahead of their clash in Kazakhstan, Medvedev spoke about how good their rivalry is, but no one expected what will happen after two sets.

And indeed the 2021 US Open champion was at his best as he proved to be a better player in the first set. He broke his opponent's serve twice, while Djokovic could respond only once, and after 40 minutes, Medvedev won the first set 6-4.

He served exceptionally, hitting five aces and winning 79% of points after his first serve. Djokovic, on the other hand, struggled a bit with his first serve, putting only 52% of the balls in.

In the second set, fans in Astana saw only one break point, which the Serbian had in the second game. However, he couldn't use his chance, so the set had to be decided in a tie-break.

Both players traded a couple of mini-breaks when the score was tied at 5-5, and the Russian was only two points away from winning the match.

Yet, he lost the tie-break 6-8 and then unexpectedly and surprisingly retired from the match and therefore granted Djokovic a spot in the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas.

This retirement shocked everyone as it came out of the blue and shocked even the Serbian, who looked really surprised.