India, Jan. 28 -- Novak Djokovic was staring down the barrel of defeat as a stunning scene unfolded in front of a packed Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday. Fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti surged to a commanding two-set lead in the quarterfinal, leaving the Serb, who later admitted he had accepted his fate, on the brink, before an unfortunate and devastating injury to the Italian flipped the script.

Having lost all three of his previous meetings against Djokovic, Musetti produced a performance for the ages in Melbourne and rarely looked back after recovering from a 0-2 deficit in the opening set. He broke Djokovic's serve five times across the first two sets as the Serb, playing his first match since Saturday after advancing via a fourth-round walk...