Novak Djokovic beats Carlos Alcaraz at Australian Open in display of physical and tactical fortitude

Relive how Novak Djokovic won the quarter-finals of the Australian Open

Melbourne, Australia – Novak Djokovic Defeated Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 Australian Open The quarter-finals are at Melbourne Park on Tuesday evening.

The No. 7 seed defeated the No. 3 seed in a fever dream showdown, defined by Djokovic’s injury, his tactical shift during his recovery, and Alcaraz’s endless and ultimately fruitless search for a spark.

After three hours and 37 minutes, Djokovic moves on to the semifinals, where he will face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev.

The athleteTennis writers Charlie Ecclesher and Matt Futterman analyze the match against Alcaraz and what it means for the tournament and for tennis.

The ninth match of Alcaraz’s genius and Djokovic’s injury

Alcaraz started the match looking nervous and struggling to find his range. He was making errors on the first shot after his first and second serves, and when Djokovic held serve at 4-3, it looked like he just needed to step up his game to steal the first set.

Instead, Alcaraz held out 4-4 before Djokovic hit a triple in the ninth game. After chasing down a shot for a 15-0 lead, he appeared to hurt himself, moving gingerly afterward. Then the thing every Alcaraz opponent fears happened: he hit a great shot. After a powerful forward pass on the goal line, the Spaniard put his hand to his ear and suddenly looked visibly lighter. A third looked inevitable for Djokovic, and sure enough, a wide forehand caused the break point that was coming and gave Alcaraz the chance to serve for the set.

Djokovic had to leave the court for a medical timeout. Two minutes after he returned, he was alert. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, he suddenly had to play catch-up as a player who had lost just one Grand Slam match by one set. That was at the Australian Open four years ago, his first major tournament ever.

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Djokovic plays Alcaraz vs. Alcaraz tennis

There was no chance of Djokovic leaving after suffering that injury. A completely different player came out for the second set than the one who started the match.

In the first set, he was focused on conservatism, turning points into physical contests and allowing Alcaraz to make mistakes, as he did in the first 12 games of the two sets in the gold medal match at the Paris Olympics last August.

That was no longer a possibility once he was playing through injury. And so Djokovic turned into an A-lister, just as he did in the intervals in that Olympic final. He went after every serve, launching from the baseline at his first opportunity, and even serving and sneaking into the net whenever he could finish the point quickly. Soon the points started to end after three or four shots.

Djokovic turned Alcaraz’s style against him to win the second set. (Martin Cape/AFP via Getty Images)

Faced with his own talent turning against him, Alcaraz was stunned and dropped serve in the second game of the second set, with Djokovic turning away two forehand winners to earn a break point, then winning the match in the next game. . It then became a test of whether this strategy could keep Djokovic in the match long enough to equalize, which would give him time for the combination of adrenaline and medications to kick in. It would be almost impossible, especially against an art master.

It worked out better than he had hoped. Not only did he steal the set he usually loses while buying time, but when the pain in his leg began to ease, he was able to surprise Alcaraz and keep him guessing as to who would face Djokovic from one point down. On to the next.

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How the two players who used to play with house money dealt with being a gambler

At the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin. The athlete I watched a match with eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi. When analyzing the confrontation unfolding before him, Agassi kept coming back to the idea that tennis players always strive to keep the odds of victory in their favor. The best players become like the casino house, turning their opponents into gamblers who start with the odds stacked against them.

Throughout his career, Djokovic has been the best at applying this logic, and is the epitome of “the house always wins.” His opponents may land more flashy shots, but in the end they end up losing the match, because everything they do proves to be unsustainable.

Against Alcaraz, at this tournament and in last year’s Wimbledon final, it was a surreal experience to see Djokovic thrust into the role of punter, hoping his number would rise. Injuries have played a part in that on both occasions, but it’s also a reality as he’s now 37: not everything can be played on your terms.

Alcaraz struggled to play on his terms after the fourth set. (Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)

What made the dynamic even more interesting is that Alcaraz also had to change the way home typically becomes. His instinct is to be the protagonist and be on top, although he is also a great defender. He trusts that his brilliance will be enough to overcome his opponent in the end, because it always is.

Djokovic’s style on Tuesday took him out of his comfort zone, and in the second set he looked unsure of his best path to victory. He was celebrating scoring points and drawing fouls, rather than electrifying the crowd after scoring the winning goal that swept them off their feet.

His head appeared to be in turmoil, and after being compromised on several service games, Alcaraz was broken at love and Djokovic equalised.

At the beginning of the third set, Djokovic was moving more freely, giving him the option to play on both sides of the equation: the house and the gambler. He can drag Alcaraz into rallies and tempt him to cough up a shorter ball or go early. This noticeably puzzled Alcaraz, who seemed confused about his path to victory. He never went into full spotlight mode; His serve, with a new, more fluid movement, was unable to get cheap points as it had earlier in the tournament.

By tempering his instincts and playing more conservatively, he became a gambler, as many of Djokovic’s opponents have fooled themselves in the past. It was different, as Alcaraz was, at times, playing three different versions of Djokovic at once, but he was unable to reverse that trend.

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Alcaraz searched for a spark

All night long, it seemed like Alcaraz was a spark away from finding himself. Especially in the third set, when he was behind from the start and was digging to come back. He broke back but got his serve back in the seventh game.

That was…isn’t it?

It was more like the opposite.

Alcaraz then committed three consecutive errors, on a volley, a forehand, and a backhand. Djokovic, sensing that his opponent was not taking the shots, went to work. He absorbed Alcaraz in a 22-shot rally, then finished it off with a forehand into the Spaniard’s back corner, not unlike the one Aleksey Popyrin hit against Djokovic at the US Open last summer to send the crowd into Arthur Ashe in raptures and inform the Serb that he was going home. .

Alcaraz was often frustrated by the small margins of error that accumulated throughout. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

After nearly two hours of dousing the field to keep the atmosphere down and Alcaraz’s jaw loose, he put his hand to his ear and supersonic.

Djokovic then fell 0-30 while serving for the set. He could this Be the spark of caraz? no. Two more errors from him led to Djokovic’s equaliser. It’s time to test the shot’s endurance again. A 17-shot rally this time, ending with Alcaraz hitting a forehand into the net.

Alcaraz was restless, one point away from falling two sets to one, and allowed Djokovic to twist him this way and that, even failing to land an easy overhead kick before missing a backhand volley he wasn’t supposed to hit.

Two games, 10 points, about eight minutes of play.

The script flipped.

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The 33-shot footnote in tennis history

In a match that was bizarre in many ways, there was at least an exciting ending.

Alcaraz seemed to realize too late that his only way back to the quarter-finals was to improve the atmosphere. He searched for that spark all night and finally got his chance in the fourth set.

When he won 33 shots to save a break point that would have left him down 5-2 and out of the match, Rod Laver Arena was finally filled with energy. Djokovic was fuming, well aware of how important this moment was, as both players leaned to the side of the court. Alcaraz was smiling and laughing. Djokovic was angry.

It looked like the turning point Alcaraz has shown the tennis world so many times in his career, when he made a highlight reel and then rolled down the stretch. Suddenly, he was smiling again, running around the field, almost enjoying himself.

When he had two break points in the next game, the comeback briefly felt like it might be on.

But Djokovic came back and succeeded in blocking them before holding his serve. Two games later, he served in the game to make that 33-shot rally ultimately irrelevant.

Charlie Ecclesher

What did Djokovic say after the match?

“I just hope this match is the final,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “One of the most epic matches I’ve ever played on this pitch, on any pitch.”

“When the drugs start being released, I will see what the reality is tomorrow morning. Now. I will just try to live in the moment and enjoy this victory,” he said of his injury.

What did Alcaraz say after the match?

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(Top image: Fred Lee/Getty Images)