The Kid Blinks

After Novak Djokovic stumbled, it was Carlos Alcaraz who dropped.

MELBOURNE, Australia — I’ve watched dozens of Novak Djokovic matches on Rod Laver Arena, but his first contest here against Carlos Alcaraz covered new ground.

So many of the classic matches Djokovic played here before, particularly against Andy Murray—a five-time opponent for Djokovic here, including four times in finals—were metronomic, monotonous meetings of bruising baseline back-and-forths, rhythmic, rote, and ritualistic.

Alcaraz, in his first meeting with Djokovic in Melbourne, dragged the 10-time champion to parts of the Rod Laver Arena court he’d rarely tread upon before in all his matches here, playfully pulling him to the front corners with dropshots and chips. Alcaraz, 21, plays tennis like he’s both the human and the golden retriever in a game of fetch, just as happy throwing as he is chasing.

Djokovic was game for many of these all-court adventures, but he’s no puppy. When the 37-year-old tweaked his upper leg—an injury he said was “very similar” to the hamstring injury he suffered two years ago here,” it seemed as though the match might disintegrate from there.

But after Djokovic left the court for a medical timeout after losing the first set, he returned ready to prowl, and Alcaraz just looked befuddled.

“Honestly, I felt like I was controlling the match, and I let him get into the match again,” Alcaraz said afterward. “I'm going to say that's was the biggest mistake that I made today.”

Alcaraz admitted that when Djokovic pulled up with an injury, he found himself pulling back.

"I had to push him a little bit more just to the limit—and I didn’t,” Alcaraz said. “I didn't do it. After that, I think he started to feel better and playing such a great level. That was my biggest mistake today…when you seeing someone that is struggling physically a little bit, kind of you [are] not playing the same level. It seems like, OK, it's going to be easier. At the same time in your mind you're thinking, like, OK, I have not to make mistakes. Probably you're not hitting the ball at the same way that you're hitting before. I think that's it.”

Djokovic’s movement was ever-so-slightly gingerly as he waited for his painkillers to kick in at the start of the second set. But what he lacked in explosivity he made up for in experience, spotting and pouncing on the weakness in his opponent. Though compromised, Djokovic was well enough to exploit his opportunity.

“I saw it,” Djokovic said when I asked him about Alcaraz being distracted. “I saw it. I try to use that to my advantage, in a sense, to take the initiative of the rallies and his hesitation. He was trying to play at some point quite a few dropshots and make me run. I've been in the situations, as well, where the opponent is struggling with injury, but keeps going. The opponent is going for everything, and then he’s staying in the match. Then all of a sudden as the match progresses, the opponent feels better. You're starting to panic a bit with your game. I understand the feeling.”

Djokovic, who said in his on-court interview with Jim Courier (no more boycott) that he would have retired from the match if he’d lost the second set, instead rallied for a four-set win: 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

“I feel for him,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz’s inexperience, continuing his answer to me. “I understand that it's not comfortable to play someone that you don't know if he's going to retire or not. Is he moving? Is he running? What's happening? I felt that he was looking at me more than he was looking at himself. I was just trying to be, yeah, self-observing what's going on in my body and at the same time focus on every point in every game and try to hold my serve and put pressure on him.

“That's what happened. I put myself in a position where I could possibly break. I broke his serve at 5-4. It was good enough to clinch the set. Then, [one] set-all, and you start to feel better. He starts to hesitate, to play with a bit more hesitation from the back of the court. He was missing a bit more. I started to play more freely.”

That freedom might only be temporary, at least physically: Djokovic said that his leg pain was already creeping back as he sat at the press room podium.

“Now that it's cooling off, I can start to feel different things,” he said.

Djokovic, at least, gets two days off before the his semifinal match on Friday afternoon against Alexander Zverev, a physical, attritional player who also will be overmatched mentally.

“I don't know what's going to happen in next few days,” Djokovic said, “but hoping for the best.”

Novak Djokovic after winning the third set. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg)