I don’t know man, what more can you say?
37 year old Novak Djokovic just kicked Carlos Alcaraz’s ass at the Aussie Open.
Told to go away once more.
Truly one of the greatest athletes and competitors of all time.
Carlos Alcaraz on the other hand?
Incredibly disappointing effort from him all around.
One of the tougher things in tennis to do is play an opponent that’s injured.
Problem with doing that is once your opponent starts to feel better you might’t turn it back on.
A match that was seemingly in the bag, all of a sudden flips on its head.
Djokovic took a medical timeout while trailing 5-4 in the first set.
He came back out with wrapping on his left thigh/groin area.
Before the timeout he had trouble moving to his right side and was visibly bothered by the discomfort.
Match over, right?
Well, Novak stormed out of the gates in the 2nd set and decided to shorten up the points.
He went for more shots with aggression and as a result started racking up momentum.
Alcaraz’s confidence and energy diminished by the minute while Djokovic started to feel himself a bit.
Before you knew it, he had a two sets to one lead and was winning points like this.
That limited mobility you saw at the end of the first set from Novak?
Not an issue anymore.
Whatever was bothering him then had been brushed aside.
Pain meds kicking in?
Playing the injury up a little bit with some mind games?
I mean it’s possible as that is definitely a strategy players use in tennis.
He did seem pretty concerned about it after the match for what it’s worth.
Either way Carlos never found his level.
Every game for Alcaraz became a chore to get through, with Novak dictating the whole way.
Unfortunately that came way too late in the match.
Did give us this insane point though.
Djokovic even said if he lost the 2nd set he probably doesn’t continue playing.
Alcaraz had his chances, but Novak wouldn’t give in.
That’s why he’s the greatest player of all time.
Straight up bullied a guy 16 years younger than him.
Handed the Spaniard only his second loss in a slam ever after winning the first set.
Carlos played about as bad as a match as he could given his usual standards.
Whatever it is, there’s something here that prevents that from happening.
His game for a fast hard court just isn’t there.
Even if Alcaraz won today, Sinner is just that much better than everyone else.
No surprise but bringing on Andy Murray as a coach was a 10/10 move by Novak.
He’s a tactical mastermind and now the 24 time slam champ has him at his disposal.
