KATHMANDU, Jan 27: Novak Djokovic´s defence of his Australian Open title ended prematurely when the Serb was forced to retire from his quarterfinal against Andy Roddick after the third game of the fourth set, Reuters reported Tuesday.[break]
American Roddick had been leading 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 2-1 when a visibly distressed Djokovic said he could no longer continue.
The 21-year-old had called a medical time out after the third game of the third set, when he had held serve to take a 2-1 lead, but looked exhausted when play resumed and lost the next five games.
Roddick held four break points in the first game of the fourth set and while Djokovic battled back to hold serve it may have sapped any semblance of energy he had left, as the seventh seed won the next game then broke him to love.
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The third-seeded Djokovic then walked off court, consulted the doctor and told chair umpire Carlos Ramos of Portugal "no more," before he went to congratulate Roddick, who has now advanced to his fourth Melbourne Park semifinal.
Meanwhile, Vera Zvonareva won 11 games in a row to demolish Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-0 and enter the first grand slam semifinals of her career.
Frenchwoman Bartoli made a bright enough start to open up a 3-1 lead in the first set, but she was unable to cope with the Russian´s power when she suddenly raised her game.
Seventh seed Zvonareva went on to register an easy victory in just 68 minutes with a performance that even she was unable to explain.
"I don´t know what happened," Zvonareva said.
"Marion was playing really well in the beginning and I made a few unforced errors, so that´s why I think I was down 3-1. Then I was able to cut down on my unforced errors and I was able to keep a good level of play throughout the whole match."
Despite being a consistent top-10 player, Zvonareva has a modest record at the grand slams and the only time previous time she had made it past the fourth round was at the 2003 French Open, when she made the quarterfinals.
Zvonareva is one of four Russian women still in contention for the title and will face either countrywoman Dinara Safina or Australia´s Jelena Dokic in Thursday´s semifinals.
