Alcaraz and Djokovic: The New Rivalry Shaking Up Tennis

Alcaraz and Djokovic greet each other after the Wimbledon final won by the Spanish tennis player (REUTERS).

When Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam, the Australian Open in 2008, Carlos Alcaraz barely lifted a few feet off the ground and the racket he trained with took up more space than him. Now, a decade and a half later, the Murcian and the Serbian star in the last great rivalry of tennis. “I think about Novak Djokovic almost in every training session, I’m not going to lie to you,” declared the Spaniard upon his arrival in Shanghai to play the penultimate tournament of the year before the ATP Finals. “He is always pushing me to the limit. I think I do more or less the same thing. That’s why we had a memorable final,” said the Serbian after the last final that both played in Cincinnati.

Both have reinvented the ultimate tennis rivalry in 2023, facing each other four times. The last one, in Turin, was scored by the Serbian (3-6, 2-6), thus sealing his place in the final of the ATP Finals, which he ultimately ended up winning after clearly beating Jannik Sinner. Like many other times against many other candidates much younger than him, Novak Djokovic prevailed again at 36 years old and that intangible delays his retirement. “When the young people start kicking my ass it will mean that it is time to reflect, but for now it is not happening. My additional motivation is in those young men who are hungry for success and inspired to play their best against me. In a way, they awakened the beast in me,” he reflects.

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The defeat in Turin marked the end for Carlitos of a season that, despite the results and sensations of the last tournaments, is, with six titles, the best since he competed on the circuit. Which has brought him 10.7 million euros, five less than Djokovic whose amount amounts to 15.9 kilos. However, in the bonus distributed by the ATP at the end of each season, the Murcian surpasses the Serbian overwhelmingly.

Carlos Alcaraz turned on the Christmas lighting in Murcia

The extras are part of the ATP budget set at the beginning of the season, with amounts already marked to be distributed based on two criteria: 20 million dollars for the 30 players with the best results in Masters 1000 tournaments (including the ATP Finals) , and 1.3 million dollars for the five tennis players with the best records in ATP 500 tournaments. Under the aforementioned criteria, Alcaraz leads the distribution with 4.4 million dollars. The opposite is experienced by Novak Djokovic who has not received a single euro as he has not participated in seven Masters 1000. Despite this, the Serbian is the tennis player who has earned the most money, thanks to successful participation in Grand Slam tournaments. .

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Carlos Alcaraz: 4,443,073 dollarsDaniil Medvedev: 2,308,344 Jannik Sinner: 2,106,872 Andrey Rublev: 1,082,956 Hubert Hurkacz: 900,219 Holger Rune: 782,945 Alexander Zverev: 718,662 Stefanos Tsitsipas: 636,884 Taylor Fritz: 543,114 Álex de Miñaur: 441,292

The Australian Open will kick off a season that is expected to be an ‘all against Djokovic’. If anyone can unseat the Serbian, it is Carlitos. No other tennis player not named Alcaraz has managed to take the number one spot from Djokovic for a few weeks and stand up to him in the Grand Slams, especially at Wimbledon, where he caused Nole’s only crack this season. “I still don’t believe it, it’s incredible. Not only have I won, but I have done so against one of the greatest legends in our sport. I started competing in tennis watching you play. You have been winning tournaments since I was born,” Alcaraz told Djokovic.

The Spaniard was not yet aware of the feat achieved in London, beating the tennis player with the most major tournaments won in history. He became, at 20 years, two months and 11 days, the youngest winner in the last 37 years and the third youngest in history after Becker and Borg. The Asian tour dynamited his aspirations, but the Spaniard keeps alive the flame that illuminates him as the tennis player capable of breaking the Balkan hegemony.

2023-12-19 17:14:00
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