WHAT HAPPENED: A performance for the ages. In the highly-anticipated, first-ever Flushing Meadows battle between two generational talents and future Hall-of-Famers, 22-year-old, five-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz dropped serve just once as he toppled 38-year-old, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-2, to advance to his third straight Grand Slam final, seventh overall and second at the US Open.
“Once again in the final here at the US Open, it feels amazing,” the world No. 2 said in his on-court interview following the match. “It means a lot to me. Today, it wasn’t the best level of the tournament for me, but I just keep a good level from the beginning to the last point. I served really well. That today was really important. Trying to play a really physical match, I think I did it. So I mean in general I played really good tennis and I’m just really happy to be able to play my second final at the US Open.”
Entering this clash of tennis titans, Djokovic possessed a 5-3 advantage in their head-to-head overall and had claimed their last two encounters, both of which occurred on the sport’s biggest stages: in an Australian Open quarterfinal earlier this year, and in the Paris Olympics gold medal match in 2024. Indeed, Alcaraz had yet to beat his older rival at any Grand Slam not held on grass.
But the Spaniard has been in world-beating form all season, leading the tour with 59 wins and capturing six titles on all three surfaces. He was also the only men’s semifinalist who hadn’t dropped a set coming into this stage of the tournament and had spent just nine hours and 33 minutes on court; by comparison the four-time US Open champion needed nearly 13 hours to advance over his opponents.
Djokovic, for his part, recognized that the Alcaraz challenge at this particular juncture extended beyond the Xs and Os.
"It's not going to get easier, I tell you that," he said after his quarterfinal match against Taylor Fritz. "I'm going to try to take one day at a time, really take care of my body, try to relax and recover. The next couple of days is really key for me to really get my body in shape and ready to battle five sets if it's needed.”
And similarly, Alcaraz understood that their most recent duels had not turned in his favor.
“I really want revenge,” he said after his own quarterfinal against Jiri Lehecka.
Perhaps owing to that motivation, Alcaraz got off to a quick start. Feasting on Djokovic’s second serves and employing his lethal forehand to prodigious effect, the Spaniard broke in the very first game and kept his familiar foe on the defense. Djokovic produced a few breathtaking backhands down-the-line from behind the baseline, but that was the only shot in the four-time US Open champion’s arsenal that was truly clicking in the early exchanges. Meanwhile, Alcaraz held firm on his own serve. A two-point sequence in the final game of the first served as a microcosm of the entire set. Djokovic chased down a drop shot and lobbed the ball over Alcaraz’s head. Alcaraz got to it, but Djokovic hit a drop volley to force an error on the next point. The crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium erupted. On the next point, Alcaraz simply served an ace and blunted his rival’s momentum.
As tends to happen when these two get together on a tennis court, the tides shifted to start the second. Djokovic held from 0-30 down in the first game, which felt like a 24-time Grand Slam champion waking from a peaceful slumber. The elite returner began to find the range and connect on that shot, and he broke to take a 2-0 lead off the strength of another rally that sent the Spaniard scrambling to return a lob at the back of the court. This was, in fact, the first time Alcaraz had been broken in 39 games and just the second time this fortnight.
The lead was short-lived, but the pair began to play the more extended rallies that have characterized this rivalry. At 4-4, 0-30 down, Djokovic came out on top in a lung-busting 27-shot exchange and went on to hold, then held to love on his next service game. Alcaraz didn’t back down even as he served from behind, and the pair stayed even to set up a tiebreak.
The battle for control of the second was, in a word, tense. Five of the first seven points went the way of the returner, with both mixing in uncharacteristic errors and absolute blistering shotmaking. In the end, the world No. 2 was just that more steady, and he took the set to take a 2-0 lead.
From there, Djokovic faded. He double faulted serving down 2-1 and seemed to not be able to chase down the powerful, pummeling shots coming from the other side of the court, nor summon the energy and mechanical precision that has helped him come back from two sets down on eight previous occasions. Alcaraz took care of business and held serve, then broke again at 2-5 to advance to the final.
WHAT IT MEANS: After the match, Alcaraz spoke a bit about the challenges of facing someone with a resume as transcendent as Djokovic’s—and a person that, until today, the Spaniard had never before beaten on a hard court.
“It's not easy playing against him, to be honest,” he said. “I'm thinking about the legend, what he has achieved in his career. It's difficult not to think about it. So that makes facing him even tougher. But, you know, I'm just really happy to get my first win against him on the hard court and make another final here.”
Alcaraz now advances to his third straight Grand Slam final, seventh overall and second at the US Open. It’s his seventh consecutive final since April. He’s just 22 years old.
And if Jannik Sinner comes through his battle with Felix Auger-Aliassime tonight, the pair will become the first men’s duo to contest three Grand Slam finals in one season in the Open Era. (Djokovic and Rafael Nadal did reach three consecutive men’s finals in 2011-'12, at Wimbledon, the US Open and in Melbourne.). This has not happened in the sport since Roy Emerson and Fred Stolle achieved the feat in 1964. After Alcaraz’s three-match-points-saving win at Roland Garros and Sinner’s revenge at Wimbledon a month later, the world No. 1 and world No. 2 are knotted at 1-1. Who wins in New York?
MATCH POINT: This is just Alcaraz’s second straight-set win against Djokovic.
