Alcaraz and Djokovic will meet in their first quarterfinal. Will either benefit from playing earlier in the tournament, with a little less history on the line? Previewing the eighth edition of the best rivalry in tennis.
“This is not the right player to play in a quarterfinal, I guess,” Carlos Alcaraz said with a smile when he was asked about facing Novak Djokovic in his next match at the Australian Open.
Whether it’s right or wrong, it will be a new experience for both men. The Serb and the Spaniard have played seven matches, four of them in finals, three of them in semifinals, and almost all of them really good.
Instead of competing for a gold medal, the way they did last summer, or a Wimbledon title, the way they did in 2023 and 2024, Alcaraz and Djokovic will be playing simply to reach a Grand Slam semifinal, with more work to go from there.
Does that fact favor one man or the other? My first instinct is that it’s good news for Alcaraz, because Djokovic has so much more experience winning major finals. Yet in the three times they’ve played in non-finals, Djokovic has won twice. The last time they faced off in something other than a title match, at the ATP Finals in late 2023, Djokovic won 6-3, 6-2.
Of course, it may not matter at all. As Alcaraz says, a Grand Slam quarterfinal is still a big deal. At that stage, anyone you see on the other side of the net is going to be either (a) a high seed, or (b) an opponent on a hot streak.
“In a Grand Slam, from the quarterfinals to the finals, those players are the best in the world,” Alcaraz said on Sunday. “If it wasn’t Djokovic in the quarterfinals, it could be other players in the top ranking.”
Alcaraz may also be helped by the fact that there won’t be any immediate history on the line here. If this match were a final, Djokovic would be going for a record 25th major title. That might be bring him extra motivation, without doing the same for Alcaraz. As it is, Alcaraz can treat this like another contest among many.
As he says, “If I think about everything [Djokovic] has done in tennis, I couldn’t play.”
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