Medvedev opens up on disappointment of retiring from Astana Open semi-finals bizarrely: "That was actually very tough because I could still win it"

Daniil Medvedev was not happy about having to retire from his match against Djokovic in the Astana Open semi-final.

Medvedev was playing a really strong match taking the opening set against a really good Djokovic. The Serbian was able to battle his way to a tiebreak in the second set as Medvedev pulled a muscle towards the end of the set.

He opted to continue playing trying to finish off the match in the tiebreak but once Djokovic won the tiebreak, Medvedev retired in order to not injure himself even further:

"It was a little bit disappointing also (because) I played one of the best tennis all year in Astana."

He added:

"That was actually very tough because I could still win it, in a way that I didn't have match point but we were still at 6-6. I knew that if I was going to win the tiebreak, I'm not going to be able to play the final, which is very bad for the crowd and everybody but I would get some points to get to Turin, which at this moment was not confirmed...So I just started to hit some drop shots and I was like, 'Well okay, if I win it, I win it'"

The injury itself was quite strange to Medvedev because he never experienced one like that before:

"It was the first time in my life I felt like this on one exact movement. Usually, I have some injuries but they accumulate with time. This one, I felt that if I continue the match, I could tear the muscle and you're out for 3 months or something. I knew the moment after I strained it that I would not be able to continue after the tiebreak."