In another clash for ages, Novak Djokovic prevailed against Carlos Alcaraz in the heavyweight slugfest.
Carlos Alcaraz is leaving the Cincinnati as world No. 1 as he left it all on the court during the brutal Cincinnati Masters final loss against the Serbian. The 20-year old runner-up at Cincy admitted that he was encouraged by the praise he received from the 36-year-old tennis guard.
To fuel their growing rivalry, the duo shared the court four their professional matchup on Sunday and the encounter lived up the hype after they delivered a classic final with many rating it as the one of the greatest three-set finals.
Djokovic saved a MP in the second set while Alcaraz saved 4 MPs in the decider before the 2023 Wimbledon runner-up eventually wrapped up a 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-4) victory in 3 hours and 49 minutes to level their head-to-head 2-2.
In the post-match press conference, Djokovic lauded Alcaraz’s performance as reminiscent of the youngster’s idol Nadal.
“The feeling that I have on the court reminds me a little bit of when I was facing Nadal when we were at our prime,” the Serbian said.
The two-time Slam Champion, meanwhile, feels being compared to 22-time major winner as the ultimate compliment.
“Today was really, really difficult playing against Novak. He always put almost five, six, seven balls in [the court] every point. Fighting and running from one corner to other one every point is really tough to deal with almost the whole match,” the Spaniard said.
“I tried to stay there, to stay good physically, but it was tough. As I said, I left everything on court.
“For me, obviously it’s great that he knows that every time he’s going to play against me, it reminds him playing against Rafa or against the best ones because that means we are on a good path. I’m working very well, but today was tough to deal with everything that Novak put me through.”
Now a 3-time champion at Western and Southern Open, Djokovic also described the match as one of the best he had been part of while admitting that it took a lot of out of him physically, mentally and emotionally.
As for Wimbledon Champion, this fight is another feather in the 20-year-old’s cap, but he knows there is still a long way to go.
“For me, it’s great to hear these things from Novak, [who] has played iconic matches, storied matches,” the two-time Grand Slam winner added.
“He said some matches against me were [some] of the toughest that he has played, it’s great. That means that my team and myself, we are doing the great work, we are in a good path. [Because of] matches like this one, we know that we have to still work in the same way that we are doing.”