Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz’s tennis rivalry of the mind arrives at the Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia – The thing about the circus Novak Djokovic has drummed up around himself at the Australian Open is that it will all come to an end.

The way Djokovic’s mind works, it probably already has. The claim in an interview with GQ that someone poisoned him during his detention in Australia in 2022; the battles with the raucous Australian crowds; the row with Tony Jones, the Australian sportscaster who made “insulting and offensive comments” about him and his Serbian supporters; waded into anti-government protests in Belgrade; it’s all in a little box in some corner of his brain. Carlos Alcaraz records the rest.

He plays his biggest opponent in tennis besides Jannik Sinner on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. Everything else is wasted energy. Let Team Carlitos think he’ll walk onto the field confused by distraction if they want.

It is likely that Djokovic hopes that is exactly what they will do. As he put it on Sunday night after dispatching a promising young Czech player in straight sets for a second straight match: “There’s a fight that starts before we step on the court.”

On that occasion the match was less with no. 24th seed Jiri Lehecka, whom he beat in straight sets and more with Jones, a sports anchor for Channel 9, the broadcaster that conducts on-court interviews at the tournament. Jones was at a venue from Melbourne Park on Friday, where he overlooked a group of Serbian fans chanting support for Djokovic as he added his own lyrics: “Novak is overrated… Novaks have been… Novak kicks him out.”

The “kick him out” comment appeared to refer to when Djokovic was deported from Australia ahead of the 2022 tournament after the government canceled his visa due to his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Djokovic then declined his interview after beating Lehecka on Sunday; Jones apologized Monday morning. The streak has absorbed most of the tournament’s oxygen over the past 24 hours.

Djokovic, 37 years old and seeded no. 7, no longer inevitable on the blue courts, where he has won more titles than at any other major, has been using his off-court spotlight as an extra limb all week. Against Alcaraz, trailing 3-4 in their head-to-head but having won their last two Grand Slam meetings, both Wimbledon finals, that will be nothing he can stand on.

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Alcaraz is well aware of these swirling dramas seven games into their rivalry. Their matches start as a mind game unlike anything he or almost anyone else in the sports world faces. Djokovic’s existence off the court and on the court seem to be spinning off the rails. He roars at his trainers, entangled in one of his me-against-the-world wheels.

Then he projects over the web an image of laser-focused serenity, focused on nothing but the task at hand. The player, so often unable to resist the attention that comes with his own circus, is replaced with the steely assassin required to understand the magnitude of the task of taking on Alcaraz.

That’s what Djokovic did at the Paris Olympics last summer when he upset Alcaraz in a match for the ages that lasted two sets and more than three hours. Djokovic’s intensity that day radiated like a physical force that filled the stadium before exploding into the air on the final point as he collapsed to the clay, unable to stop his hands from shaking with emotion.

Just like when he played Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the altercation is nowhere in sight.

“Reminds me of my matchups versus Nadal in terms of the intensity and the energy on the court,” Djokovic said.

“Great to see; not that great to play against.”

Alcaraz understands the truth of their struggles, also aware that the challenge, as mental as it is physical, can send each of them into paroxysms if they’re not careful. A year and a half ago, on the same clay he cried before collecting his silver medal, the monumental task of facing Djokovic sent Alcaraz into a full-body panic attack and spasm in the middle of their French Open semifinal. He used the experience to “find joy in suffering”, and won the tournament a year later.

“This is not the right player to play in a quarterfinal,” Alcaraz said in his press conference after Jack Draper retired from their match down 7-5, 6-1.

He knows what to do. The first task is to play Djokovic rather than his trophy case.

“If I think about everything he’s done in tennis, I couldn’t play,” he said.

“I mean, 24 Grand Slams, most weeks at No. 1. He broke almost every record in tennis. I try not to think about it when I’m in the game.”

He thinks a lot about his tactics, just like Djokovic does. When both players have been fully fit, their matches have yielded a few points. While Alcaraz vs. Sinner usually turns into a hyper-aggressive computer game played outside the driving lanes and with total disregard for a neutral event, the matches between Alcaraz and Djokovic are fencing matches fought with double-edged swords.

Alcaraz’s most dangerous shot is his forehand, which suggests it’s best for Djokovic to stay away from it, but it’s also the most likely shot to break, especially when he has to hit it on the fly. However, it’s when he’s most likely to pull off those miracle shots that boost his confidence and send him on a tear of dominance.

Djokovic’s backhand is one of the best in the history of the sport, basically a backhand that he can use to switch from defense to attack from almost anywhere on the court. But it’s the less stable forehand that he can turn into his cruise missile and shoot at angles other players can’t see. Go there at your own risk.

“I know my guns,” Alcaraz said. “I know that if I’m able to play good tennis against him, I’m able to beat him.”

Using these weapons intelligently is often Alcaraz’s biggest challenge. He is always in his own battle between winning a match and creating a highlight. He seems to enjoy both equally. At this year’s tournament, he’s leaning into the efficiency that Djokovic has trademarked for 25 years, improving his serve and blasting through matches with just the odd flourish to keep his finger to his ear.

Against Djokovic, that match could be a devil’s choice. Djokovic has a way of mesmerizing opponents who convince themselves they have to be more than perfect and play like a magician to beat him. They try to do too much and fall into a flurry of mistakes.

Or they try so hard to play within themselves that they don’t take any chances and end up letting Djokovic joystick them around the court. Tomas Machac, the 23-year-old Czech who beat Djokovic last spring, took turns following both of those routes during the third round he endured on Friday night.

Alcaraz could use another serving day in the ages, like the one he found in last summer’s Wimbledon final. He consistently hit first serves around 130 mph and hit spots on his first and second balls in a way that Djokovic had never seen him do before. He does it more now, and uses it to propel himself forward on the pitch.

He perfects something a brand might call the Crush and Rush, where he jumps onto the court for a second serve, blasts it straight and deep and gets behind it to finish the point, like a brutal version of the Roger Federer SABR; he cuts short slices and angled passes to the ankles of opponents trying to steal the net from him. Djokovic will have visions of the recent Wimbledon final, where every stroke beyond the service line ended with a ball either at his toes or flying past his waist.

Alcaraz will have visions of the two forehands that Djokovic unleashed in the decisive tiebreak at the Olympics with the gold medal on the line. Djokovic groaned as he put everything he had into each of those balls, knowing that if he didn’t finish Alcaraz in straight sets, the Spaniard’s young legs would give youth the advantage over experience.

No male player has played in more Grand Slam quarterfinals, semifinals and finals than Djokovic in the Open Era. He has also toppled his nearest rival and arguably the best player in the world in a Grand Slam quarter-final before. He beat Nadal in 2015 – possibly the most difficult task in the modern history of men’s tennis – and beat him again in the semi-finals in 2021.

Alcaraz beat Sinner in the quarterfinals of the 2022 US Open and then won the title, but Sinner had not yet become Sinner and Alcaraz had not yet become Alcaraz. The opportunity to topple the world no. 1 is probably what Alcaraz and Djokovic are playing for, unless Tommy Paul or Alexander Zverev can stand in their way. Whoever wins on Tuesday will have to decompress, get back up for a semifinal and then figure out how to scale the sport’s current highest mountain.

That would be a good problem for each of them to handle. Because now they have each other.

(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)