MELBOURNE, Australia — One of them has operated with ruthless efficiency; the other has brought the drama. But Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic have played their roles against type en route to their hotly anticipated Australian Open quarterfinal, which will be played on Tuesday, January 21 in Melbourne.
For Alcaraz, normally such a magnet for flashy tennis, there’s been something of a back-to-basics feel about his performances in Melbourne. Djokovic, the 10-time champion built on consistency, has been a non-stop source of theatrics and intrigue. Alcaraz has hit his usual highlight-reel shots from time to time and Djokovic has dropped only two sets, but the nature of their paths to the last eight has been unexpected.
From the moment the draw was made, this was the match that everyone circled — hoping for a repeat of last year’s Olympic final and the two most recent Wimbledon finals too.
They delivered Sunday, with Alcaraz leading Jack Draper 7-5, 6-1 when the No. 15 seed retired; Djokovic followed Alcaraz onto court to polish off Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4). The latter match presented as straightforward but, like all of Djokovic’s matches so far, it was anything but.
The third set was a grind; the entire occasion was pockmarked with howls of frustration and more disagreements with the Melbourne crowd, which he has antagonized all week. After a perfunctory on-court interview, Djokovic was booed out of Rod Laver Arena before he returned to sign autographs; television cameras later caught Djokovic deep in discussion with Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley.
He later explained that his silence stemmed from a boycott of Channel 9, an Australian television network, and veteran newsreader Tony Jones.
“A famous sports journalist who works for the official broadcaster, Channel 9 here in Australia, made a mockery of Serbian fans and also made insulting and offensive comments towards me,” Djokovic said in his post-match news conference.
“He chose not to issue any public apology and neither did Channel 9. So since they’re official broadcasters, I chose not to give interviews for Channel 9,” he said.
Djokovic had spent the match roaring at anyone who would listen, but also produced some remarkable highlight-reel shots, including a backhand pass in the match tiebreak that prompted him to call out a heckler and a volley to bring up match point that had him pointing to his ear for more noise — just not anything that would annoy him.
That came after his win over another Czech, Tomas Machac, in the previous round. Djokovic cupped his ear to the fans when that was done, and in a meandering news conference afterwards, he said tennis needed to modernize, advocating for dancers on the court mid-match and backing Danielle Collins for her response to a hostile crowd earlier in the tournament.
Djokovic has also sought the limelight off the court. In the pre-tournament week, he told the Herald Sun of the “trauma” he faces when visiting Australia as a legacy of being deported from the country two years ago for breaching Covid-19 protocols. He then claimed in an interview with GQ that he had been “poisoned” while detained in a Melbourne hotel during the incident.
As Alcaraz and Djokovic bear down on their eighth meeting, they are feeding off each other’s traditional strengths to gain an edge.
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For Alcaraz, this year’s Australian Open has been an operation in going under the radar and dialling things back. For a player defined by the spectacular, his aims this fortnight have been tennis’ equivalent of meat and potatoes: improve the serve and return.
Carlos Alcaraz has been a model of efficiency in Melbourne. (William West / AFP via Getty Images)
He’s tweaked the former, including adding an extra 5g of lead in his racket, and it’s generally been paying dividends. He was so dominant in his 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 second-round win over Yoshihito Nishioka — producing 14 aces and winning 89 percent of first-serve points — that he wrote, “Am I a serve bot?” on the camera lens. The rhetorical question was asked tongue-in-cheek, but the suggestion that this great showman could be given the epithet reserved for only the most one-dimensional players underlines his efficiency.
In total, Alcaraz has only been broken three times in four matches. He has won 81 percent of first-serve points at the tournament, the third-best of the players who have reached the second week. He’s joint-fourth for second-serve points won with 59 percent, and he is outperforming his tour average in the last year in both departments. That 59 percent figure would be even higher if it weren’t for a ropey tally of 37 percent against Draper on Sunday.
Djokovic will hope some of that scratchiness bleeds into Alcaraz’s performance on Tuesday, because when they met in the Wimbledon final last July, Alcaraz produced the best serving display of his career. A wide-eyed Djokovic said afterwards that he’d never seen Alcaraz serve so well.
The Spaniard has generally played with a similar ruthlessness over the last week or so in Melbourne. With his shaven head, he’s looked like he’s meant business from the start, and has only dropped a set in one of his four matches. In his seven Grand Slam matches before this year’s Australian Open, he won in straight sets just once: that Wimbledon final against Djokovic.
Alcaraz has also been returning better than usual. He has won 41 percent of his return points against first serves, which is the best of anyone at this year’s tournament and seven percentage points higher than his 52-week average of 34 per cent, the best on the tour. Against second serves, he is winning 56 percent of points, up from 54 percent (the third-best on the tour). Alcaraz has spoken a couple of times about how he would love to return like the legendary Andre Agassi.
Overall, he looks more focused than in 2024 and, with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero here after missing last year, he appears far less likely to drop off like he did in the quarterfinal against Alexander Zverev 12 months ago.
Djokovic also has a different coaching setup from this time a year ago. It’s tricky to gauge how much of an impact Andy Murray has had on his game, but the pairing of two legends of the sport is another way in which Djokovic has dominated the discourse at this year’s Australian Open, by ensuring that every cough and spit produced by either man has been the subject of forensic analysis.
Novak Djokovic has been the center of gravity all week at the Australian Open. (Cameron Spencer / Getty Images)
In a rare moment of pressure against Lehecka, Djokovic screamed at his team when down 0-30 early in the third set — even though he was up two sets and a break. He double-faulted on the next point and was promptly broken; a few games later he swatted a ball away in frustration, earning boos from the crowd.
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Novak Djokovic enters his brat era in Melbourne
Djokovic likes to find things to rage about to keep himself focused, but he will need the kind of laser focus he found against Alcaraz in the Olympic final in Paris again Tuesday. Djokovic has won 59 percent of return points against second serves, the seventh-best of anyone in the competition, and given Alcaraz’s prodigious serving he will be looking to use that edge at every opportunity. Djokovic has also served with authority, winning 78 percent of first-serve points (a touch worse than Alcaraz) and 59 percent of second-serve points (level with Alcaraz).
His intensity in the third set and then the tiebreak against Lehecka was illustrative of another key factor in their matchup: physicality. Alcaraz has a 2-1 lead in their head-to-head in Grand Slam matches, and Djokovic, for all his brilliance, is still facing a man 16 years his junior who has spent only seven hours and 45 minutes on court this tournament. Djokovic, by contrast, has spent 11 hours on court.
“I know my weapons,” Alcaraz said in a news conference.
“I know that I’m able to play good tennis against him, I’m able to beat him. That’s all I’m thinking when I’m facing him.”
Djokovic will know he can do the same. More intriguing will be how each player uses their new affinity for the other’s calling card, as an efficient winning machine and a great showman meet — just not in the way tennis fans would have expected.
(Top photo: Monika Majer / Getty Images)