After an intense fight against Carlos Alcaraz, ten-time winner of the Australian Open Novak Djokovic qualified on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday for the semi-finals in Melbourne.
Winner in four sets of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and 6-4, in a little over 3 hours 30 minutes and in front of an audience largely committed to his cause, the indestructible 37-year-old Serbian dismissed a first major opponent in his quest to become the most successful player in history in the four major tournaments of world Tennis. He currently shares the record with Australian legend Margaret Court (24 titles each).
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At 21, Carlos Alcaraz saw his dream of becoming the youngest winner in the history of the four Grand Slam tournaments shattered by the relentless domination of the Djoker in Melbourne.
The Spaniard will have one last chance to accomplish this feat during the next edition of the Australian Open, but he remains stuck for the second year in a row at the quarter-final stage in Melbourne.
Djokovic is back in the last four, a year after being stopped on the threshold of the final by Jannik Sinner, on the road to his first Grand Slam title.
This year, the Serbian and the Italian will not be able to face each other before the final. Before thinking about the title match, Djokovic will anyway have to concentrate on his next opponent, the world number two, Alexander Zverev, just as hungry as him since he is still chasing his first major title at 27 years old.
The German, led 8-4 by Djokovic in their direct confrontations, dismissed the American Tommy Paul in four sets on Tuesday to reach the final four at the Australian Open for a third time (2020, 2024, 2025).
Faced with the boundless energy of Alcaraz, his drop shots placed just in front of the net and his heavy cross shots, Djokovic once again showed the extent of his talent and his unfailing combativeness.
Exercise’endurance
Stripped of the first set by the Spaniard, on a shutout concluded with an ace, after leading 2-0, the Serb resumed his opponent's service in the second game of the second set, before confirming the break to lead 3-0.
Three games later, everything had to be done again (3-3). Djokovic, however, achieved a decisive break at 5-4 in his favor, in turn inflicting a shutout on his opponent to return to a set all.
Both players kept their faceoff until the sixth game of the third set.
-While Alcaraz led 40-15 on his serve, Djokovic managed to snatch the game from him, granting himself a decisive advantage to win the set (6-3).
At 4-2 for Djokovic in the fourth act, the Serb obtained a double break point, saved by Alcaraz at the end of a long rally of 33 rallies which left the two players prostrate with exhaustion on their racket, under the cheers from the audience, heated white-hot by this endurance exercise.
After maintaining his face-off, the Spaniard had two chances to return to 4-4, but Djokovic avoided the danger one last time to win the set 6-4 and extend his Australian epic.
“Concerned” about his leg injury
After the match, Djokovic said he was “concerned” about the injury to his left thigh that occurred during his duel against Alcaraz.
“I'll be honest, I'm concerned,” said the former world number 1 at a press conference.
At the end of the first set, after being broken in the ninth game, Djokovic requested a medical timeout and left the court for a few minutes, obviously injured in the left thigh.
“During the time-out, the doctor strapped me (applied a bandage, Editor's note) and gave me painkillers. They took effect after 20-30 minutes,” Djokovic said.
“I will have to assess the situation tomorrow (Wednesday) when I wake up, I will probably skip training tomorrow,” said the Serb.
Without going into “details”, he explained that the injury he suffered was “very similar” to the “hamstring” one which had handicapped him two years ago, without however preventing him from winning his tenth title in Melbourne.
Friday's semi-final against Zverev “is clearly going to be a challenge, in every way.”
“The extra day of rest comes at the right time,” rejoiced Djokovic who will benefit from two days of recovery before his half, compared to just one in the previous rounds.
The match against Alcaraz, lasting more than 3h30, “exhausted us both, it was a battle of crazy intensity. I hope to be physically able to move freely and be ready to play five sets” if necessary, Djokovic concluded.
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