As light fell on New York’s pristine Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday, Novak Djokovic had nowhere to hide. He had not been slighted by misfortune, nor had he been physically compromised. Instead, for the third time in as many months, he was delivered a sobering reality about his present-day status in the sport, one he has dominated for most of the 21st century.
In a two-hour-long display of ruthless ball-striking, Carlos Alcaraz crushed Djokovic 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to reach the final of the US Open. In arguably the finest form of his career, Alcaraz, who is into the summit clash without dropping a single set, is clearly playing the best tennis he has ever played on a hard court, with his revamped serve looking as devastating as his whirring forehand.
There is so much confidence pumping within the five-time Major winner from Spain – who has reached his seventh career Grand Slam final, his third just this year – that this clinical performance is sending a message, loud and clear, to his opponent on Sunday. It will be a tall order to get past him.
In doing so, he also delivered a message to the great veteran too, on the opposing side of the net. At 38, and after his worst-ever season, Djokovic has admirably reached the semifinals of each of the four Majors, and in many of those 24 matches, he has legitimately looked like a top-tier tennis player regardless of his age or physical conditioning. But Alcaraz and World No. 1 Jannik Sinner have both lifted themselves above the rest of the tennis tour into a territory of their own. Hardly anyone, not even men’s tennis’s greatest-ever, has been able to reach that plain.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic reacts during his semi final match against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
And so Djokovic would be on the receiving end of yet another humbling straight-sets defeat in which he was decidedly second-best, just as it had been against Sinner at the same stage at the French Open and Wimbledon. The Serb was not fully fit for the latter, but Saturday’s contest certainly had shades of the match in Paris against the Italian, with Alcaraz’s pulverising weight of shot overwhelming him in the baseline exchanges. Even when Djokovic lifted himself and produced his best, it was not enough.
The Serb enters this temporary uncertainty now; his performances certainly state that he is the third-best player in the world. But he is just that. And distinctly so.
Overpowered and outhit
Saturday’s semifinal was a study in men’s tennis’ evolution, it was like watching two players from different eras. The sheer differential of speed coming off both players’ rackets was evidence enough of that fact. Djokovic hit eye-popping winners and tame errors due to virtually the same reason: he simply could not cope with Alcaraz in the baseline exchanges and attempted to bail himself out by either going for broke on his groundstrokes or rapidly changing directions with a clever slice or angled forehand.
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There were moments when that technical mastery and precise point construction yielded results, but not over the course of a five-set grind. The two players were simply not operating on the same level of rally tolerance.
Djokovic and Alcaraz’s rivalry has had more recall value than pretty much anything else in tennis over the past few years. Perhaps it is because of just how unique it is for them to have met on every important stage of the sport despite the 16-year age difference. In nine matches, they have met at each of the four Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP Finals, and the Olympics gold medal clash. Nothing has defined the transitional moment of tennis like these two facing off in high-stakes encounters.
And it has yielded some high-wire moments, like the second-set tiebreaker on Tuesday: a seven-point showcase of just how good these two players are when they operate at prime capacity. The 22 games before that had been relatively streaky; Alcaraz had taken an early lead, served phenomenally well and come up clutch on big moments to both take the first set, and come back from a break down in the second.
It was in the shootout that Djokovic was playing to survive, and he produced some stinging tennis; a mix of his best baseline play and deft touch. There were serve-and-volleys, drop shots, lunging passing shots and aces. But all in vain; Alcaraz equalled it and eventually overpowered it, breaking the Serb’s defence with two massive forehands to take the lead.
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From there, the match was a procession. Djokovic finished it, just about, but carried on in the knowledge that the comeback was not coming, even if the same New York crowd that had showered him with hostility two days prior, was trying to will him on.
Alcaraz will only go from strength to strength from here. He may run into the formidable challenge of taking on Sinner on a hard court on Sunday but he could hardly be in a better place for it. The opposite can be said about his vanquished opponent.
