“He held his nerves very well,” Novak Djokovic hails Carlos Alcaraz’s ability to stay cool under pressure
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Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz‘s rise has been nothing less than a fairytale. The Spanish teenager defeated his idol Rafael Nadal and then a day later he put up an even better performance against the World No.1 Novak Djokovic to progress to the finals of the Madrid Open. Alcaraz became the youngest ever player to reach the finals in the Spanish capital as he defeated the Serb (5)6-7,7-5, 7-6(5) to set up a final date with Alexander Zverev.
After the game, Novak Djokovic gave Alcaraz a lot of credit for holding his nerves and playing with so much maturity even at the age of 19. Speaking after the defeat, Djokovic said, “Congratulations to him. He held his nerves very well for someone of his age to play so maturely and courageously. Very impressive and he completely deserved to win.”
Novak Djokovic had a decent start but then he got the upper hand and wrapped up the first set. he continued that momentum in the second set aswell but unlike the first, he was not able to capitalise on them and now he was ruing those chances. “I think I had a lot of chances, it was a great match and fantastic battle. But I can definitely be disappointed for not being able to convert my chances in the second set, I had a lot of breakpoint chances but I could not capitalise when it mattered,” the 20-time Grand Slam winner continued after his semifinal loss in the Madrid Open.
Despite the defeat, Djokovic looked really good and he fought till the last ball. The Serb agreed that this was the best that he had played this year and will look at the positive once the disappointment from the game has sunk in. “I think I have played good tennis. This is probably the best tennis that I have played this year. I think when the disappointment from this loss passes I will be able to take the positives from this week,” Djokovic added.
Novak Djokovic praises Carlos Alcaraz’s kick serves
Both the players served really well and stopped each other’s rhythm in the game. Novak Djokovic won 66% in the first serve whereas Carlos Alcaraz won 68% from his first serve to put the pressure back on the Serb. However, it was Novak Djokovic who got eight aces compared to Alcaraz’s four.
Sharing more from the game, Novak Djokovic highlighted the youngster’s impressive kick serves which caused a lot of problems for the 20-time Grand Slam winner. The 34-year-old heaped praise on Alcaraz’s serving capability as he said, “I will definitely give him a lot of credit but his kick serves were huge. It was difficult to deal with his balls. I was not feeling my returns were good as he was serving a lot of kick serves to put himself in a good position. I did not manage to handle that well,” Djokovic concluded.
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