Novak Djokovic has enjoyed fair share of rivalries on the ATP tour throughout his remarkable career but the tennis legend says Carlos Alcaraz is always pushing him to give his best in their electric battles.
23-time GS Champion, Djokovic will start his campaign for the 24th GS title at US Open on Monday having already surpassed the GS count set by his all-time rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. However the defending champion and his Wimbledon final opponent Alcaraz is on course to challenge his quest for the record-extending Grand Slam trophy at New York major.
The Serbian avenged his five-set Wimbledon defeat by outlasting the Spaniard in under 4-hour final at Western and Southern Open a week ago. The pair may be at the opposite ends of their tennis careers but have already built a thrilling rivalry that seems to stay for a while before the 36-year-old calls time on his illustrious career.
“He’s always pushing me to the limit,” said the Serbian. “I think I do to him pretty much the same thing. That’s why we produced a memorable final.
“It was one of the best, most exciting, and most difficult finals I was ever part of in best-of-three, no doubt, throughout my career.
“That’s why I fell on the ground after I won the match because it felt like winning a grand slam, to be honest. The amount of exchanges and rallies. It was physically so demanding and gruelling that I felt very exhausted for the next few days.
“Those are kind of the moments in matches that I still push myself on a daily basis, day in and day out, practice, sacrifice, commitment. At 36, I still have the drive.”
If the Cincinnati Masters Champion wins his R1 match against Alexandre Muller of France, he will once again take back the #1 ranking from the 20-year-old. Alcaraz, as defending US Open champion will open his campaign on Tuesday against German Dominik Koepfer.
Meanwhile, in Women’s draw defending titlist Iga Swiatek and WTA #1 will face the Swede Rebecca Peterson in the opener.
“On one hand you always want to kind of take experience from last year, find all these positive things that happened, take strength from that.
“On the other hand you have to remember that it’s a totally different story. A lot can happen during like these 12 months.
“So I try to take everything step by step, not really go forward with my thoughts, think that I need to do something more because last year I won,” said the Pole.
In other news, WTA icon Billie Jean King has tipped Alcaraz to eclipse Novak Djokovic as the greatest player of all-time. While talking to Sky Sports King suggested that despite the big slam-count disparity between Alcaraz and Djokovic (2-23), the former will usurp Djokovic as the GOAT if he manages to remain injury free.
“The men have been totally spoiled with Federer and Nadal and Djokovic,” she said, in an engaging interview with Sky Sports.
“Djokovic is probably going to end up as the greatest (of those three) as I think he is going to keep winning Grand Slams.
“Then you have Alcaraz, who I adore. I first saw him when he was 18 and I said, I will say now, he is going to be the greatest ever, unless he gets hurt.
“He has brought the drop shot back and in the 1980s it used to drive me crazy that no one would use the drop shot. Bring them in… they are on the baseline.
“Every generation gets better. I hate it when old players say they could win now, but are you kidding, we wouldn’t get a point.”