Novak Djokovic said his spectacular racquet smash in his Australian Open quarterfinal against Alexander Zverev helped him win the match.
The world number one was 1-3 down in the third set when frustration got the better of him and he demolished his own racquet after a poor return on deuce.
However, he says that while he’s not proud of it, releasing that frustration helped him refocus and turn the match around.
“It was a relief, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” Novak Djokovic said after the match. “Of course, I am not proud of that, but you go through a lot of different emotions, inside battles.
“To me, it happens and today it helped me. It was an accumulation of a lot of things.
“I regained my concentration after I broke my racket. Things started to change a bit for me.”
Djokovic will now face world number 114 Aslan Karatsev in the Australian Open semi-finals.
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