Will Alcaraz and Djokovic Finally Get to Play Each Other on the French Open?

Eight days in the past, 128 males started competing in singles on the French Open. Pretty a lot everybody has been centered on two of them.

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic moved one step nearer on Sunday to a possible semifinal showdown. They clinically disposed of overmatched opponents who typically struggled to get factors and video games, a lot much less units, in back-to-back matches in entrance of a packed home on the Philippe Chatrier courtroom, providing a have a look at what could also be coming to that stadium earlier than the week ends.

First, Djokovic took aside Juan Pablo Varillas, a 27-year-old Peruvian who has spent the final decade beating the again bushes of the game. He had by no means received a match in the principle draw of a Grand Slam event earlier than this 12 months’s French Open and loved a storybook journey by means of the primary week. Djokovic ended all that in 1 hour, 57 minutes, expending what power he wanted within the 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win and never an oz. extra.

“I know what my goal is here,” he stated, and he didn’t have to elucidate what it was.

Then it was showtime, as Alcaraz, the 20-year-old world No. 1, took the courtroom in opposition to Lorenzo Musetti, an Italian who’s simply 10 months older and has virtually as flashy a recreation.

That one took 2:08 and had the equivalent rating, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, for Alcaraz.

“My best match of the tournament so far,” he stated.

For greater than a 12 months, Djokovic, the winner of twenty-two Grand Slam singles titles, and Alcaraz, the brand new king of the game who received his first main title on the U.S. Open final 12 months, have in some way been lacking one another.

Sometimes one would lose earlier than he acquired deep sufficient to face the opposite. Djokovic’s resolution to not get vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19 pressured him to overlook the laborious courtroom tournaments in North America final summer time and this spring. When Djokovic returned for the autumn season and the Australian summer time, Alcaraz was damage. They couldn’t join.

Now they’re six units away. Alcaraz has to beat the fifth seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, on Tuesday. They have performed 4 matches and Alcaraz has received all of them.

Djokovic performs Eleventh-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia. They have performed 9 occasions, with Djokovic successful eight.

That Alcaraz and Djokovic will face one another in a semifinal on Friday just isn’t a certainty. Even the perfect gamers have dangerous days. Both Tsitsipas and Khachanov like taking part in on clay greater than on some other floor. Djokovic has battled a sore elbow just lately. Alcaraz has proven previously eight months that he might be susceptible to damage. Upsets occur.

That stated, on Sunday Djokovic and Alcaraz delivered performances — and self-assessments about them — that lent an air of close to inevitability to a coming showdown.

Djokovic has lengthy been the grasp of match administration at Grand Slam tournaments, which require males to win seven best-of-five-set matches to say the title and virtually all the time separate the nice from the excellent. He begins taking part in on the degree of power expenditure, each bodily and emotional, that he has determined he wants for the match, and dials it up provided that the necessity arises.

So lots of his winners Sunday, hit on angles that he noticed and Varillas didn’t, might not have had the zip he shows in opposition to different opponents. They didn’t need to.

He was up by 4-0 earlier than the match was roughly 20 minutes outdated in opposition to an opponent who had by no means earlier than confronted anybody at his degree.

“With one ball you are being aggressive, and then with one ball he turns the coin the other way and then you are defending,” Varillas stated.

Djokovic has been on this place earlier than, one match away from the heavyweight duel with one of many greatest names within the sport, typically Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. Last 12 months it was a quarterfinal match in opposition to Nadal, who additionally has 22 Grand Slam singles titles. The 12 months earlier than Nadal loomed within the semifinals. Those each got here to fruition.

Djokovic didn’t fake he has not been taking note of what is going to come after what comes subsequent.

“You always follow the top guys in your half, how they’re playing,” he stated. “Of course you’re looking, you’re analyzing everyone’s game.”

Yes, he’s centered on himself, he stated, “but of course I do keep in mind what the others are doing.”

The “others,” after all, means Alcaraz, who, maybe due to his youth, involves his matches from a vantage level apart from power conservation, wanting as an alternative to create the best spectacle potential.

He relished the prospect of Sunday’s match with Musetti, his smile breaking out and his eyes lighting up as he spoke of taking part in one other flashy upstart.

“Really good rallies, good shots between us, and of course it’s going to be a really fun match to watch, as well,” he stated.

At occasions, that may be as necessary to him as successful. He virtually by no means sees a drop shot he doesn’t wish to race to, a lob he doesn’t assume he can chase down so he can prolong the rally with a shot between the legs, even when it means giving his opponent a straightforward overhead, which he may even attempt to chase. He is the one making the magic but additionally its greatest fan.

After his win on Sunday, he confessed that typically, after his greatest photographs, he needs to search for on the huge display screen within the stadium and drool over the replay together with everybody else within the crowd and watching on tv at residence.

“A lot of times,” he stated.

Six extra units. Then, he and Djokovic will get to placed on the present Roland Garros has been ready for.