Relive how Novak Djokovic won the quarter-finals of the Australian Open
Melbourne (Australia) – Novak Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open tennis tournament 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday evening.
The No. 7 seed beat the No. 3 seed in a fever dream of a showdown, defined by Djokovic’s injury, his tactical shift during his recovery, and Alcaraz’s endless and ultimately fruitless search for a spark.
Djokovic moves on to the semifinals to play No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev.
The athlete Tennis writers Charlie Ecclesher and Matt Futterman break down the match and what it means for the tournament and 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 mistakes on the first shot after his first and second serves, and when Djokovic held serve for a 4-3 lead, it looked like he just needed to step up his game to steal the first set.
instead of. Alcaraz tied the score at 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.
Novak Djokovic injured his left leg in the first set of the match, in the same match in which Carlos Alcaraz captured the decisive serve. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Djokovic had to leave the court for a medical timeout. Two minutes after his return he was at his place. 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 in what was his first major tournament ever.
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Novak Djokovic plays tennis Carlos Alcaraz vs Carlos Alcaraz
There was no chance of Djokovic leaving after suffering the injury. A completely different player came out for the second set than the one who started the match.
In the first set, he was all about conservatism, turning points into physical contests and letting Alcaraz make mistakes, as he did in the first twelve games of both sets in the Paris 2024 gold medal match. That was no longer a possibility once he was playing through injury.
So he turned into a strike-first player, just as he did in the intervals in the 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. Points started to end quickly with three or four shots.
Novak Djokovic turned Carlos Alcaraz’s game against him to win the second set. (Martin Cape/AFP via Getty Images)
With his talents turning against him, Alcaraz was stunned and dropped serve in the second game of the second set, with Djokovic turning away two forehands to earn a break point and then winning the match in the next game. After that, it became a test to see if this strategy would keep him in the game long enough to equalize, which would give him time to kick in the combination of adrenaline and medications. It would be close to impossible, especially against the master of the art.
It worked out better than he could have imagined. Not only did he steal the combination he usually loses while buying time, when the pain in his leg began to ease, he was able to surprise Alcaraz and make him guess which player he would be playing with from point to point. .
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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. While analyzing the match in front of him, Agassi kept returning to the idea that tennis players always strive to keep the odds of winning 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: the house always wins. His opponents may land more flamboyant blows, but in the end they lose, because everything they do proves unsustainable.
Against Alcaraz, at this tournament and in the 2024 Wimbledon final against the same opponent, it was a surreal experience to see Djokovic thrust into the role of gambler, hoping his number would rise. Injuries played a part on both occasions, but it’s also a reality of being 37: not everything can be played on your terms.
Carlos 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 natural instinct is to be the protagonist and be on top, although he is a great defender as well. He is confident that his brilliance will be enough to overcome his opponents in the end, because it almost always happens.
Djokovic’s style took him out of his comfort zone, and in the second set he seemed 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 in danger on a number of service games, Alcaraz was broken at love and Djokovic equalised.
At the beginning of the third set, Djokovic was moving more freely, which gave 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 he had earlier in the tournament.
By tempering his natural 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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Carlos Alcaraz searched for the 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 it, wasn’t it?
It was more like the opposite. Alcaraz committed three consecutive errors, on a direct shot, a forehand, and a backhand. Djokovic, sensing that Alcaraz had zero tolerance for his 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 Arthur Ashe into ecstasy and put Djokovic ahead. He noticed that he was going home.
Carlos Alcaraz was often frustrated by the slim margins of error that accumulated throughout. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
After nearly two hours of dousing the pitch to keep emotions low and Alcaraz isolated, he put his hand to his ear and supersonic.
Djokovic then fell 0-30 while serving for the set. Could this be the spark of the caraz? no. Two more errors from Alcaraz led to the equalizer for Djokovic. 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.
Shaken, and one point away from falling two sets to one, Alcaraz 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.
Matt Futterman Charlie Ecclesher James Hansen
What did Novak Djokovic say after the match?
We will provide you with his statements on the field and his thoughts in the press conference as soon as they are received.
What did Carlos Alcaraz say after the match?
We will bring you his thoughts in the press conference as soon as they are received.
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(Top image: Fred Lee/Getty Images)