diff --git a/libavfilter/dnn/dnn_backend_tf.c b/libavfilter/dnn/dnn_backend_tf.c
index 552a9f2fa1..c15f1a7d3b 100644
--- a/libavfilter/dnn/dnn_backend_tf.c
+++ b/libavfilter/dnn/dnn_backend_tf.c
@@ -625,7 +625,7 @@ static int fill_model_input_tf(TFModel *tf_model, TFRequestItem *request) {
     DNNData input;
     LastLevelTaskItem *lltask;
     TaskItem *task;
-    TFInferRequest *infer_request;
+    TFInferRequest *infer_request = NULL;
     TFContext *ctx = &tf_model->ctx;
     int ret = 0;