Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley is confident Novak Djokovic will return to play the tournament in 2026.

The 24-time grand slam winner was forced to retire hurt after one set of his semi-final match with Alexander Zverev last week, having aggravated a hamstring problem.

Djokovic first suffered the injury during his quarter-final win against Carlos Alcaraz, with some sections of the Rod Laver Arena crowd booing him following his semi-final exit.

And after the withdrawal, the 10-time Australian Open champion hinted that 2025 could have been his final appearance at the grand slam.

But tournament director Tiley has dismissed suggestions Djokovic will not be playing at Melbourne Park again.

"There was some talk about Novak [not coming back]... Novak will return," he said.

Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury “experts” out there. pic.twitter.com/ZO5mBtw9zB
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 25, 2025

"We'll see Novak back, and I look forward to catching up with him in the next couple of weeks."

Djokovic posted photos of an MRI scan of the injury on social media after some fans claimed he had faked the issue.

"He had a good warm-up that morning and his team were confident that he'd be able to get out there and play," Tiley said.

"I haven't met a player that does as much pre-preparation and has as big a focus on it as Novak does, and he would do everything he possibly can to get on the court."

It was the second successive year that Djokovic exited in the Australian Open semi-finals, with Jannik Sinner lifting the trophy at both editions.

The Serbian is trying to capture a 25th grand slam title to surpass Australia's Margaret Court, who won 24 women's singles titles between 1960 and 1973, for the outright record.