Would the Romans, the Maya, the Ottoman to attend at the end of an empire be aware? This Friday, in New York, more than 23,000 people paid a fortune to see the last rales of a tennis empire and the confirmation of the arrival of the … successor. The semifinal between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz was designed to seal the change of guard in world tennis. Of the ‘Big Three’ by Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, to the ‘Big Two’ by Alcaraz y Jannik Sinner. Spanish and Italian are about to close two seasons in which all ‘Grand Slams’ monopolize. Djokovic, the best in history, tries to hold on to his latest opportunities to raise his 25th ‘big’. The duel showed that the dream of the Serbian, at 38, is almost chimera. Alcaraz dispatched the Serbian in three sets, in a historic match, but with a tennis that will not go down in history (6-4, 7-6, 6-2).
The generational relay, the growing evidence that Djokovic is not at the level of the two current bosses, it was not for the good that Alcaraz played. On the contrary: the Murcian won with a discreet tennis, far from his best version.
And that the game pointed in its first measures to a bell of Alcaraz, who started the game to the rest and did it aggressively. It was something that he has practiced in recent days, knowing that the angular serbian loot could harm him. He broke the service in the inaugural game and rapidly placed the score in 3-1 in his favor.
He then sent the feeling of what many predicted: Alcaraz’s is another rhythm, another speed, another tennis. In some right of Spanish impossible to defend, Djokovic smiled incredulously, Perhaps nostalgic of tennis he had.
The game pointed to Vapuleo, but soon muddled. It wasn’t just because Djokovic It will cost you to hold the balls. Also because Alcaraz It was lost in abundant non -forced errors, one behind the other, away from the consistency he has shown in the last two weeks in New York. In the previous one, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, celebrated that his pupil was granting five, six or seven non -forced errors. Before Djokovic, he closed the game with 30.
That rupture and strength of his serve – best in the game and in the tournament – were enough for Alcaraz to take the first set. The second was similar: both allowed the other to break their serve and lengthened to the ‘tie break’. The game was truffled with a handful of spectacular points, also from Djokovic, answered with the bitter ovation that is given to the least favorites. They were flashes of excellent, unsurpassed tennis that he had, the brightness of a star of the past, off by the arrival of the Alcaraz-Sinner duo, which have dazzled world tennis.
Djokovic and Alcaraz tied in that manga to errors, in a match below its meaning and the thousand dollars per entrance that cost the cheapest armchair, near New York’s sky.
Did Alcaraz respected Serbio? Did you contemplate? Did the memory of the final of the Paris Games affected you, that painful defeat? Did his arm shrunken due to the lack of rhythm? Did you think about whether your level would be enough for a still hypothetical final against Sinner?
Impossible to know. But that apparent equality was a mirage. Djokovic surrendered to the ‘tie break’ and above all, in the third set, with an improper blackout of his history in the tennis, between double faults and rude failures. And with a clear physical disadvantage against the Murcian, who won without tightening the accelerator. “They are simply too good,” I would later recognize the best usual at a press conference, referring to Alcaraz and Sinner. With sincerity, he made it clear that he cannot compete with the physique of these rivals, especially in five sets matches.
It was a melancholy ending, with Djokovic turned into the shadow of what it was. He did not hold the farewell ovation that the central of New Yorkto which Alcaraz standing standing. Nor did he help the disrespect of the US Open interviewer after the game, who asked Alcaraz about golf and not about the immense figure of Djokovic and the importance of this duel.
“I have not shown my best level of the tournament,” Alcaraz acknowledged at that time, aware that he needs to raise his game if he wants to compete in the final of this Sunday. In spite of everything, his tournament is imposing: he has not yielded a single set, they have only broken the serve twice, he has sailed it with solvency and has the intact physique. Only the final test is missing.
