Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz currently dominate men’s tennis. The last Grand Slam tournament of the season starts on Monday.
A new fighting pair has formed at the top of men’s tennis. For a very long time we lived in the Big3 era, when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic won practically everything.
Now Federer has finished. Nadal is recovering from his injuries and aims for one more season in 2024. Djokovic is still tenaciously at the top and has a tough competitor in the young Carlos Alcarazin.
The last Grand Slam tournament of the season, the US Open, starts on Monday. The two go into it as overwhelming favorites, and the tennis world is already eagerly awaiting the dream final.
The encounters between Djokovic, 36, and Alcaraz, 20, are truly generational battles. Audiences love Alcaraz, who is young, energetic and athletic. The Spaniard’s repertoire includes explosive forehands and soft stopping punches. He is also incredibly fast and has time for seemingly impossible balls.
Djokovic’s extremely tough combination of defensive and offensive play has proven its effectiveness for 15 years already. Djokovic is the best returner in the world and it’s almost impossible to get the ball past him in basic ground balls. On the other hand, the Serb switches defense to attack very effectively.
Djokovic has not been popular with the public in the same way as Federer and Nadal, or maybe even Alcaraz. Djokovic sometimes behaves badly on the court.
Also, things outside the field, such as refusing vaccinations or special claims that, for example, you can change the composition of water with just thoughts, have not actually increased his popularity. On the other hand, to Djokovic’s credit, his comments about his opponents are generally very respectful.
Mutual encounters draw
Djokovic and Alcaraz have met four times. The wins are 2–2 and all matches have been very interesting. The first one was won by Alcaraz in the spring of 2022 in Madrid in a really tight three-round match.
This year, the two have met three times. At the French Open, the first two sets were even, but after that, Alcarazi’s legs started cramping and Djokovic took an easy win. Wimbledon’s five-set classic final ended with Alcaraz’s celebration. Last week in Cincinnati, Djokovic won a three-set battle that lasted almost four hours.
Djokovic and Alcaraz have traded the number one spot in the world rankings. Alcaraz is now number one in the list, but the difference is only 20 points. Djokovic will almost certainly become number one after the US Open as he has no points to defend there, while Alcaraz, who won the tournament last year, is defending 2,000 points.
When comparing the career achievements of Djokovic and Alcaraz, the difference is naturally big, because the players are at a completely different stage in their careers.
If we compare the results at the age Alcaraz is now, we notice how strong a result Alcaraz has made at a young age. Both players were born in May, so it’s easy to compare. The following graphic compares Alcaraz’s current tournament wins to Djokovic’s situation in August 2007, when he was the same age.
Djokovic took his first Grand Slam tournament victory the following January 2008 in Australia.
Difficult starting points for Finns
Finnish players’ starting points for the US Open are not the best possible. Emil Ruusuvuori had to withdraw from last week’s Winston-Salem tournament due to illness. On the other hand, the Helsinki native won handsomely the eighth in the world ranking the week before in Cincinnati Andrei Rublev. Now the lottery cast Rublev as Ruusuvuori’s opponent again.
Harri Heliövaaran after the summer “paternity leave”, the games have not gone as usual. Noise hazard and Lloyd Glasspool have lost their first three matches out of four tournaments. In the week before the US Open, Heliövaara traveled home according to the original plan, but Glasspool played the world number one in Winston-Salem Neal Skupski with. In the US Open, Heliövaara and Glasspool normally play together.
Otto Virtanen made it through the qualifiers to the main series. This is the first time Virtanen has played in the main series of a Grand Slam tournament. In his first match on Tuesday, Virtanen will face the Argentine ranked 34th in the world of Tomas Etcheverry.