Summaries of tennis matches usually provide a distorted impression of what is happening. After all, if you line up the most spectacular rallies, it doesn’t reveal how the game went in all the other, unspectacular rallies or what turns it took during all of that.
But sometimes, very rarely, there are matches that are so full of highlights in real time that they seem like a summary. The Wimbledon final in mid-July between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz was such a match. The final of the Masters tournament in Cincinnati on Sunday is now too.
For the first time since Alcaraz’s great triumph in the London sanctuary of tennis, the Spaniard and Serb Djokovic had faced each other on the court. Again it was a thrilling, versatile, high-class duel.
In the second set, Djokovic fended off a match point, in the third set Alcaraz four of them, plus 13 of 16 break balls. In the end, after almost four hours in the sweltering heat of Ohio, Djokovic won 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-4). Then he fell to the ground as if struck by lightning, cheering, yelling, tearing his jersey like an emotionally overexcited wrestler.
“It was one of the most exciting matches I’ve ever played in any tournament,” said Djokovic later, when he had cooled down a bit emotionally. “It felt like a Grand Slam.” Addressing Alcaraz, who as the defending champion is likely to be his biggest competitor for the title at the US Open, which begins next week, he said: “You never give up, do you? I love that about you I hope to see you again in New York. That would be fun – for the fans, not for me.”
Published/Updated: A comment by Thomas Klemm Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 11 Pirmin Clossé, London Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 8
Djokovic against Alcaraz, that would have what it takes to become an epochal tennis duel. If it weren’t for the problem that Djokovic is already 36 years old and his tennis era is therefore more at the end than at the beginning. It is therefore unclear how long he can or wants to meet his opponent, who is 16 years his junior, at this level. After this final, however, it seems all the more clear that they should still be able to fight one or the other big duel until then.
