Boris Becker claims Novak Djokovic was ‘underestimated’ against Carlos Alcaraz at 2023 Roland Garros

Novak Djokovic claimed his 3rd French Open title, as he defeated Casper Ruud in the finals.

Boris Becker claims Novak Djokovic was ‘underestimated’ against Carlos Alcaraz at 2023 Roland Garros

Novak Djokovic (Source: French Open)

Novak Djokovic claimed his 3rd French Open title, and a record 23rd Grand Slam title on Sunday. The Serbian defeated Casper Ruud in straight sets in the final to cap off a dominating French Open run. He also reclaimed his world number-one ranking spot from Carlos Alcaraz, whom he defeated in the semifinals.

Former coach of Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker revealed that he was becoming a huge fan of Carlos Alcaraz. He believes that the future of tennis is in safe hands with the Spaniard around. However, he claims that Djokovic was underestimated as compared to the youngster at the French Open.

Many pundits tipped Carlos Alcaraz to dominate the field, and claim the title in Paris. However, as things turned out, Novak Djokovic defeated the Spaniard in the last four, after the 2022 US Open champion suffered from cramps in the final two sets. “I’m becoming a huge fan of Carlos Alcaraz. Tennis is in good hands with him at the helm. He smiles a lot, he plays new tennis, he’s a likeable young Spaniard, he has good manners, so he’s really good. I hope two or three more will come close to him, because we need players like that, first of all,” Becker said.

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Boris Becker ridicules underestimating Novak Djokovic at the French Open

Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic

Boris Becker believes that Novak Djokovic’s experience of winning Grand Slam tournaments should have made him the sheer favorite at the 2023 French Open. The German lavished praise on Novak Djokovic, claiming that he played at a much higher tempo than Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals.

“First of all, the 36-year-old is a 22-time Grand Slam winner, he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s been in this situation 16, 17, 18 times, and he’ll have thought about how to play, fight and work the twenty-year-old challenger. And twhat Djokovic did: He played much higher tempo, so he went over the dreaded forehand of Alcaraz and played much faster, that means much more intense,” Becker said.

Carlos Alcaraz revealed in the post-match press conference that he suffered from cramps during the last four battles because of the pressure of facing Novak Djokovic. Boris Becker stated that Carlos Alcaraz had not faced this situation before in the past, and he gave too much effort early into the match. The former tennis player believes that the Spaniard failed to read the match, and treated it as a best-of-three encounter, rather than playing the long game.

“Then it’s also about a certain tension: he also built up pressure on his opponent, and that was too much for Carlos. He has never experienced such a situation with any other player, at any other tournament,” said Becker.

“Yes, we are talking about Djokovic, the most successful. So these are all talents that Novak has, and he brought to the day, and what’s more, Carlos walked [ran] too much. This is a best-of-five match, you know your opponent is playing well, you have to manage your strength. When it’s 40-0, let the ball go by. And he didn’t do that,” he added.

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