A generation gap will develop and grow between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, but it’s not discernible yet, and it may never show on the hardcourts of Melbourne Park. For all the ways they represent generations and eras, the score here is Djokovic 10, Alcaraz 0. And only Djokovic can add to that this year.
It’s not happenstance. Alcaraz has beaten Djokovic in the past two Wimbledon finals, but he has never prevailed on a hardcourt. He might have to wait out the legendary Serb’s career. For now, hard is too hard. Djokovic is not ready to pass on the baton yet.
Novak Djokovic embraces Carlos Alcaraz after their quarter-final.Credit: Getty Images
Djokovic continues to defy gravity and succession. Know this: He turned pro a couple of months before Alcaraz was born. Know also that no man his age has won a major championship. He is now only two matches away.
This triumph – 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 – was classic Djokovic in one particular. It turned at a juncture that was both unlikely and likely. The first set was exquisitely poised when Djokovic appeared to tweak a groin muscle, left the court for treatment and returned with a heavy bandage on his left thigh. The injury proved manageable, but the set was beyond salvation.
Djokovic said later that he was playing on “one and [a] half legs”. He said that if he’d lost the second set, he might not have completed the match. But far from cramp Djokovic’s style, it brought out his best. He controlled, if not dominated, the balance of the contest in a way that was counterintuitive to its blockbuster billing.
He said two doses of medication had helped. “It didn’t bother me, it didn’t create any hindrance at the end of the match – only in the second set,” he said. “Honestly, sometimes it helps. It definitely helped in the second and third set. You start to play a bit more aggressive, you go through your shots more.” Alcaraz can tell you all about that.
This was a reprise. In 2021, Djokovic was hampered by an abdominal strain and in 2023 by a twangy hamstring. Both needed a period of rehab after those tournaments. But, extraordinary to relate, he won both titles. Beware the hurt golfer, they say, but the hurt Djokovic is a killer.
Expect the Djokovic groin to be the most studied, analysed and speculated-upon piece of musculature at Melbourne Park between now and Friday’s semi-final against Alexander Zverev.
Alcaraz and Djokovic are two of only six players with a winning ratio of more than 85 per cent (over a substantial body of work). The others are Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. They met this night as champions, but of different times.
The terms were set early and high. A brilliant Alcaraz stop volley in the second game prompted applause from Djokovic, but he broke Alcaraz’s serve in the same game. Here was the template. Alcaraz hit more winners and made more errors, a familiar pattern. Djokovic’s ball kept coming back at Alcaraz like a mozzie you thought you had swatted for good.
The fine balance of the contest was disrupted when an Alcaraz drop shot stretched Djokovic, who winced, flexed, lost his serve and left the court for treatment before returning with a heavily bandaged thigh.
Not for the first time, a limited Djokovic became an even more dangerous Djokovic. Seemingly, he read both Alcaraz’s movement and his mind. He jumped on the Spaniard’s serve like a batsman advancing on a fast bowler. The match lost its epic dimension and instead became an exposition of Djokovic’s ability to impose on opponents a kind of administrative detention. The crowd were no less absorbed.
Alcaraz’s sheer class meant that he still took nicks out of Djokovic from time to time, but could not widen any of them into a proper opening. He’d come prepped to play classic but fading Djokovic, but found himself playing hurt but even cannier Djokovic – an even more dangerous proposition. He could outhit Djokovic, but he could not outsmart him.
It wasn’t that Alcaraz was wobbly on his serve, but that Djokovic simply did not allow him any consistency or rhythm on it. At one stage, Djokovic held break points against Alcaraz in five of six consecutive service games. He did not merely beat Alcaraz, he mastered him. That’s what masters do.
Not that Alcaraz was embarrassed. His final throe was to win a 33-shot rally when facing break point, after which both players retreated to their corners, gasping for breath, and Alcaraz grinned broadly. At 21, he has many last laughs ahead of him, but not at Djokovic’s expense, and not yet at the Australian Open.
Djokovic’s Olympic triumph over Alcaraz in Paris last year had been seen as some sort of sentimental late-career bonus – irrelevant in the scheme of things. Now it can be seen in a different light, as proof of that particular quality superstar by which he flies bloody-minded in the face of history, logic, data and punditry. He got Alcaraz on clay, and now he got him again on a hardcourt.
Done, Djokovic was typically generous. “[It was] one of the most epic matches I’ve played on this court, on any court,” he said. “I just wish this match was a final.” In fact, as a quarter-final, it was the earliest they have met in a tournament, reflecting the rise of others in the rankings.
The world will turn, and the guard will change, but Djokovic again has stalled it.
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