Novak Djokovic showed Tuesday that he isn’t ready to abdicate his throne as the king of men’s tennis.
The 37-year-old Djokovic, in pursuit of his 25th Grand Slam title, defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. With the win, the Serbian great reached his 50th career semifinal at a major and is seeking his 11th title in Melbourne, Australia.
To advance, however, the No. 7 seed Djokovic had to contend with the No. 3 Alcaraz, as well as with wind and an issue with his upper left leg that forced him to call for a medical timeout down 5-4 in the first set. He returned to the court with it taped.
Alcaraz sealed the first set, but Djokovic jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set and used an efficient baseline game to show he was back in the match. And after it was over, he showed respect for Alcaraz, who at 21 already has won multiple majors.
“I want to say my utmost respect and admiration for Carlos, everything he stands for and what he has achieved so far in his career,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview about the three-hour, 37-minute match. “What a terrific guy he is, and an even better competitor. Youngest ever No. 1 in the world, four Grand Slams, and I’m sure we are going to see a lot of him. … Maybe not as much as I would like, but he is going to be there for sure longer than me. I just wish this match today was the final, honestly.
“It’s one of the most epic matches I have played on this court, on any court really.”
Alcaraz was seeking to become the youngest player ever to achieve a career Grand Slam, adding to his wins at the U.S. Open (2022), Wimbledon (2023 and 2024) and the French Open (2024).
Next up for Djokovic is Germany’s Alexander Zverev, who still is seeking his first career major victory. The No. 2 seed, Zverev topped No. 12 American Tommy Paul 7-6 (1), 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
Zverev, who will play in his third Aussie Open semi, lost serve at 5-5 in the first set and sat a game from falling behind 1-0. But he fought back to survive a set point and broke the 27-year-old Paul before rolling in the tiebreaker.
Zverev, 27, slipped up even earlier in the second set, dropping his first service game and ultimately falling behind 3-0. He again fought back, though, breaking Paul to pull within 5-4 before holding serve from there — despite facing another set point — and blanking his opponent in the tiebreaker.
“To be honest, I should have been down two sets to love,” Zverev said in his on-court interview following the match. “He played better than me. I was not playing great and I thought he was.
“I somehow won the first set, somehow won the second set, and I’m up two sets to love all of a sudden and I need only one more set.”
Paul did dominate the third set to gain some hope for a comeback, but that quickly went away, as Zverev cruised in the fourth set to close out the match.
“The fourth set was definitely the best that I’ve played and I’m obviously extremely happy to be back in the semifinals now,” Zverev said.
–Field Level Media
