Photo credit: Australian Open Facebook
By Alix Ramsay
It had taken 13 days for the Australian Open to spring into life but when it finally did, it was more than Tennis Australia could have dreamt of.
The men’s final was history on a plate: if Novak Djokovic had won, he would have become, at 38, the oldest grand slam champion in the Open era and, more to the point, he would have won that elusive 25th major title to take top spot in the grand slam trophy honours board. That has been his own, personal Holy Grail for the past handful of years.
As it was, Carlos Alcaraz lifted the Norman Brookes Cup Challenge Cup, beating the 10-time former champion 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 to become the youngest man ever to win a career Grand Slam. It was Alcaraz’s seventh grand slam in the past three years and four months.
At 22 years and 272 days of age, he had beaten Don Budge’s 87-year record: Budge was two days shy of his 23rd birthday when he won the French Championships (as they were then) in 1938 to complete his set of silverware from all four majors.
“What you’ve been doing – I think the best word to describe it is historic, legendary,” Djokovic told the new Australian Open champion.
As he accepted the runner up’s silver salver, Djokovic was gracious in his praise of his younger foe (he was conceding 16 years to Alcaraz); but he wanted to say his piece and give up the mic. “This is Carlos’s moment,” he said, smiling. And yet, in many ways, it really wasn’t.
The final had been won and lost two days before in the semi-finals. Alcaraz had needed five hours and 27 minutes to get the better of Sascha Zverev (Zverev served for the match but could not take it); Djokovic needed four hours and nine minutes to down Jannik Sinner in five sets of tactical nous, near-perfect execution and sniper-like serving. And it damned near killed him. He finished at 1.30am and did not get to bed until 6am on Saturday.
As he faced Alcaraz on Sunday, he did not appear to have broken step from the semi-finals. He was flawless for a set and a bit while the world No.1 looked tense and nervy. Then, as Alcaraz regrouped in the second set, Djokovic’s game collapsed.
In the space of a couple of games, his first serve disappeared, the errors flew thick and fast and suddenly he was running on fumes. Leaning on the towel box as wiped the sweat from his brow, looking for the quick winner – a tactic that failed more often than not – he was heavy legged and struggling.
Photo credit: Australian Open Facebook
At the start of the tournament, he had claimed that he was not there to raise the white flag to the youngsters, to Alcaraz and Sinner. But in the second and third sets, he looked so tired that he could barely lift the white flag, much less wave it.
A couple of pills from the doctor at the start of the fourth set helped. Presumably they were painkillers as Djokovic’s 38-year-old body must have been hurting in places he never knew existed by this point. Whatever they were, they did the trick. He began to move with more freedom, his energy levels rose and he got the crowd involved. He even had a break point at 4-4. But he missed it. The look on his face said it all: that was his chance. Break there, serve for the set and it would have been game on. But he missed it. Carlos was not going to lose from there.
“It’s always a pleasure to face him,” Djokovic said afterwards, “because he’s definitely one of the best players I’ve ever faced in my career. He makes you play your best tennis in order to beat him. It’s what I did for a set and a half but then things changed and he deserved to win.”
Could he have done better? “The first set was one of the best sets I’ve played in the last couple of years. I’m just disappointed I wasn’t able to maintain that feeling I had in the first set.”
As Djokovic made his speech during the presentation ceremony (“I had a winning speech prepared and a losing speech prepared,” he said, only half-jokingly. That man leaves nothing to chance when there is a grand slam title on the line), Alcaraz looked more emotional than his beaten rival. There is genuine respect and affection between these two great champions and the wait for the ceremony to start involved much hugging and back-slapping between them.
“First of all, I just wanted to talk about Novak,” Alcaraz said after carefully placing the cup back on its stand. “I think he deserves an ovation for sure. You talk about the things, the amazing things, but what you’re doing is really inspiring not only for the players, the tennis players, but the athletes, all the persons around the world. For me as well. Just putting the right work, hard work every day with your team, every tournament you go, and playing such a great tennis.
“For me, I just enjoy so much watching you play. For me, it’s been an honour sharing the locker room, sharing the court, and as I said, watching you play. So, thank you very much for what you’re doing, because as I said, it’s really inspiring to me.”
Whether he will ever share a court again with his inspiration in a grand slam final remains to be seen. Despite the disappointment of the loss, Djokovic was trying to be positive.
“It’s an incredible achievement for me to be able to play in the finals,” he said. “To be a couple of sets to maybe win the championship. After a loss, it’s always a bitter feeling but nevertheless, I have to be content with this result.”
Yet to the crowd, he had dropped a little hint that, at 38, this was probably as good as it is ever going to get.
“I must be very honest and say that I didn’t think that I would be standing in a closing ceremony of a Grand Slam once again,” he said to the packed Rod Laver Arena. “So I think I owe you the gratitude as well for pushing me forward. God knows what happens tomorrow, let alone in six months or 12 months. So it has been a great ride. I love you guys.”
It sounded like goodbye. But with the remarkable Novak Djokovic, you just never know.