Novak Djokovic is in the semifinals of the Australian Open. © APA/afp / DAVID GRAY

Unbelievable: Djokovic defeats Alcaraz

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has won the giant duel with Carlos Alcaraz and will now challenge Alexander Zverev in the semifinals of the Australian Open.

21 January 2025

From: dpa/dl

The 24-time Grand Slam tournament winner beat the 21-year-old Alcaraz 6:4, 4:6, 6:3, 6:4 and advanced to the semifinals in Melbourne for the twelfth time. Only the Swiss tennis icon Roger Federer (15) is more successful in this statistic among the men.

In the round of the best four, the 37-year-old will face Hamburg’s Zverev, who had previously defeated US professional Tommy Paul 7:6 (7:1), 7:6, (7:0), 2:6, 6:1. Of the twelve duels with Djokovic so far, Zverev has only won four, and the Serb also won the last encounter in 2023 in Cincinnati.

Djokovic struck

The first match between the two exceptional talents since the Olympic final in Paris, won by Djokovic, started off well. At the end of the first set, however, Djokovic had to take a medical time-out and returned to the court with a white bandage on his left thigh, occasionally limping.

Carlos Alcaraz had to admit defeat to the old master. © APA/afp / ADRIAN DENNIS

After that, the ten-time Australian Open winner played even more aggressively and riskily. That worked – also because the situation was mentally difficult for Alcaraz and he made significantly more mistakes.

At times, the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner imitated his opponent's limp and shook his head. Physically, Djokovic seemed to have recovered significantly from the third set onwards. At 0.57 local time, after 3 hours and 37 minutes, he converted his first match point.