Alcaraz, Carlos (2003- )

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      Djokovic to Face Alcaraz in Wimbledon Final After Easily Beating Sinner

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      The 23-time Grand Slam champion may have mellowed, but he is as determined as ever to win his favorite title again. He will play Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.Six months ago, having just won the Australian Open one year after being deported from the country, Novak Djokovic collapsed in the arms of his family and his coaches in a moment of strained ecstasy.He had drawn even with Rafael Nadal in the race for most Grand Slam singles titles. When he finally took the lead last month, at the French Open, he fell onto his back in the red clay of Roland Garros and then called winning that tournament, his 23rd Grand Slam title, his version of scaling Mount Everest. He donned a warm-up jacket emblazoned with the No. 23 and jetted off to the Azores for a hiking vacation with his wife.To be in the presence of Djokovic these past two weeks is to be around someone who, at least when he is not working within the confines of the grass tennis court, is almost unrecognizable from his previous self. Gone is the pugnacious battler carrying around a career full of angst. His default facial expression, something like an inquisitive scowl, has been replaced with a relaxed grin.Walking on the streets of São Miguel or the grounds of the All England Club, from the practice courts to the locker room, he no longer stares mainly at the ground, moving purposefully past the passers-by. He stops and chats. He poses for a selfie and to sign an autograph. After a moderator cuts off his news conferences, he insists on sticking around for an extra question or two. When his day is done, he returns to the home he is renting close by for dinner with his wife and their young children.Djokovic signed autographs after his match.Neil Hall/EPA, via ShutterstockIt really is very good to be Novak Djokovic right now, and it got a little bit better on Friday. Djokovic easily handled Jannik Sinner, the rising Italian star who is supposed to be one of the special talents of the sport’s next generation, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4), setting up a men’s singles final showdown with Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.The final point was a microcosm of the match and nearly all of Djokovic’s Grand Slam matches lately — a spirited rally in which Djokovic is thoroughly dialed in, ending with another opponent’s dreams crushed with a final backhand into the net.Cue Djokovic’s fist pump, his pounding the grass, his waves to the crowd.For the moment, he has stopped making declarations about Serbia’s long-running territorial conflict with Kosovo, inserting himself into a pitched and occasionally violent 700-year fight, or political battles over public health and personal freedom.Sure, the fans pull for his opponents, especially early on, when the beatings begin and perhaps some charity applause or any kind of support will extend the match a bit and bring a little more value to the Centre Court ticket that might have cost a week’s salary. Djokovic gets it. Just don’t do it when he’s about to serve or in the middle of the point.This was his 34th consecutive win at Wimbledon, and this one earned him a spot in Sunday’s final, a chance to win his fifth straight singles title here and to tie Roger Federer’s record eight singles titles.Jannik Sinner, the rising Italian star, lost to Djokovic in the semifinals.Alastair Grant/Associated Press“I still feel goose bumps and butterflies and nerves coming into every single match,” he said after his win on Friday. “I’m going to be coming into Sunday’s final like it’s my first, to be honest.”Djokovic is now eight matches from becoming the first man to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same calendar year since Rod Laver managed the feat in 1969.Is it possible for a best-of-five sets match to be over in the second game? With Djokovic on the court it is. That is how long it took for Djokovic to break Sinner’s serve. Sinner had a chance to forestall the inevitable outcome slightly in the fifth game, when, down by 3-1, he earned a chance to break Djokovic’s serve, but he sent his forehand just wide, and that was that.In his nearly 20-year career, Djokovic has lost just five times at a Grand Slam tournament after winning the first set, and just once after winning the first two. And all of that took place before he became this nearly invincible version of Djokovic.Another detail or two, if you are not convinced.There was a tense game early in the second set when Djokovic let out an extended roar after ripping a backhand down the line and the chair umpire penalized him by giving the point to Sinner because Djokovic was still yelling while Sinner was swinging. Djokovic was not happy about that, or with being called for taking too long to hit his serve a few moments later.He wandered behind the baseline to gather himself and control the frustration that would have boiled over and crippled a younger, more impetuous Djokovic. Then came some solid serves and crisp strokes, and the game was over.There was another moment of annoyance in the third set, after Sinner had raised his level of play, started whacking the ball through the court and ultimately earned two set points with Djokovic serving at 4-5, 15-40.Carlos Alcaraz will play Djokovic in the finals. “He’s young, he’s hungry — I’m hungry too,” Djokovic said. “Let’s have a feast.”Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDjokovic sent his first serve into the net and a few fans seated close by cheered. Another yelled, “Come on, Rafa!”Djokovic didn’t like any of it. He raised a sarcastic thumb in the air and shook his head, and then stared down the hecklers after he won the next point and the game. Eventually, there was a tiebreaker. Djokovic doesn’t lose tiebreakers, especially not when he is sliding into backhands and forcing his opponents to keep hitting one more shot, and then another, as he did against Sinner to climb back from a 3-1 deficit and win six of the next seven points.Djokovic has won six of the 11 Grand Slam tournaments since tennis returned from its Covid-19 break in 2020, but he has played in only eight of them. He missed two because of his refusal to be vaccinated against the virus and was defaulted from a third, the 2020 U.S. Open, when he accidentally hit a line judge with a ball he swatted in anger.More times than not, the only way to keep him from winning the most important titles in the sport is to keep him from competing.Federer is retired. Nadal is out indefinitely, recovering from hip and abdominal surgery. Andy Murray, a friend and boyhood rival from Djokovic’s teenage years in junior tennis, has a metal hip and can’t get past the first week of Grand Slams anymore.For 15 years, Djokovic dedicated his career to being better than them — not just for one match or one tournament, but forever.Now that his rivals are on their way out, Djokovic has gone on the hunt for new motivation. He has already largely vanquished one generation of future stars — Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov, who generally crumble against him in the Grand Slam events, half-beaten by his aura and his past domination of them before his first forehand sharply angles across the court.“In the pressure moments, he was playing very good, not missing,” Sinner said. “That’s him.”Now he has another Grand Slam title in his sights, and the 20-something upstarts want to topple him before he eventually exits the game. He doesn’t often speak of taking any special pleasure from beating players whose legs have so many fewer miles than his do, players who really should be sending off an opponent in the second half of his thirties. But he did just that, briefly, earlier in the week, after beating Rublev, who is 25 and put up a solid effort in the quarterfinals, losing in four sets.“They want to win, but it ain’t happening still,” Djokovic said on the court when it was over.Now comes Alcaraz for the second time in five weeks. In the French Open semifinal, an overstressed Alcaraz suffered nearly paralyzing full-body cramps.Now, the 20-year-old Spanish star, the only player younger than 27 with a Grand Slam title, gets another chance against an even more relaxed Djokovic, playing his ninth Wimbledon final. Alcaraz has played only 12 matches at Wimbledon in his life.“He’s young, he’s hungry — I’m hungry too,” Djokovic said. “Let’s have a feast.” More

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      Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and the Power of Vulnerability

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      Alcaraz and Medvedev rarely shy away from discussing their frailties, reflecting a shift in tennis culture. Now, they’ll face off in a Wimbledon semifinal.Carlos Alcaraz is nearly always a killer on the court, suffocating opponents with relentless aggressiveness.He did it once more on Wednesday, beating his childhood rival, Holger Rune of Denmark, in straight sets to land a spot in a Wimbledon semifinal for the first time. Alcaraz brims with confidence and never hesitates to answer when asked about his goal.“To win the tournament,” he said more than a week ago.So it always comes as a surprise when, sometimes in the next sentence, Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish star, reveals one of his insecurities. Perhaps it’s his lack of experience on grass courts, or his fear of Wimbledon’s hallowed Centre Court, or even the stress-induced panic that, combined with exhaustion, caused his entire body to cramp during the French Open semifinal last month against Novak Djokovic.“I was really, really nervous,” he said of his emotions before his 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Rune.So maybe it’s fitting then that his opponent Friday will be Daniil Medvedev, another player who, though he is third in the world and has been ranked No. 1, has no problem seeing himself as the goof who has crashed the party at the top of elite tennis.For a long while in his five-set quarterfinal against the American Chris Eubanks, the suddenly hot, sixth-year overnight sensation, things were not going well for Medvedev. At one moment, a ball kid bounced a ball over to him. He dropped it onto his foot, and the ball rolled away.“Nice job,” he said to himself out loud, as he fetched it.Such is the essence of Medvedev, who won the match.“When I go on the court, I always try to be myself,” Medvedev, a 27-year-old Russian, said early in the tournament. “If you tell the truth, it’s easier.”Before this year, Daniil Medvedev’s best result at Wimbledon was a fourth-round appearance in 2021. He beat Alcaraz on his way there.Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTennis and sports psychology have come a long way. Not so long ago, the idea of admitting to nerves or weakness was seen as a surefire recipe for defeat. In recent years, sports psychologists and wiser veterans have been encouraging their clients and protégés to understand the value of embracing their frailties.“So many of us, and especially athletes, wear this mask, like it’s a piece of armor,” said Ben Crowe, who spent years working with the former world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, who retired last year at 25. “We think it makes us safe. But we need vulnerability.”Billie Jean King, one of tennis’s greats and a trailblazer for equal rights, chimed in on the subject just before Wimbledon, discussing how concerned she had become over watching so many players struggle with their mental health because they try to achieve the impossible.“Boys are taught they always have to act brave, and girls are taught they are supposed to be perfect,” King said at a ceremony earlier this month celebrating the 50th anniversary of the WTA Tour’s founding. “Well, boys can’t always be courageous, and no one can be perfect, so I think we all ought to stop trying.”King does not have to worry about Alcaraz or Medvedev. Neither man has any problem talking about being scared or uncomfortable, or sharing whatever thoughts are running through his head, no matter the thousands of people watching in stadiums and the millions more watching on television.And neither player is the worse off for wearing insecurities on his sleeve. Among men, Alcaraz and Medvedev are the only players younger than 29 to have won a Grand Slam singles title: a reflection of how dominant Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have been during the past decade, too.Alcaraz has been wearing a bucket hat around the All England Club for much of the past two weeks, as though he is headed to an outdoor music festival with his buddies rather than playing in the world’s most important tennis tournament.“Smiling for me, as I said a few times, is the key of everything,” Alcaraz said.Alastair Grant/Associated Press“Lucky hat,” Alcaraz said Wednesday night, as he walked into his postmatch news conference.He then proceeded to talk about the nerves he was experiencing during the tight first set with Rune on Centre Court, the stage that he said last week rattles him every time he walks onto it — especially so on Wednesday.“I couldn’t control it at all,” he said of the tension with which he played on a day when Queen Camilla watched from the Royal Box.He played tight for 65 minutes, the entirety of the first set. But when he clinched it with a backhand return winner down the line, he finally let it all out, he said, with two, full-body roars and two screams of “Vamos.”Only then, he said, did he start to enjoy the moment, and to smile, which is part of his secret sauce.“Smiling for me, as I said a few times, is the key of everything,” he said.Medvedev doesn’t smile much on the court, and for weeks now Medvedev has told everyone not to expect very much of him at this tournament. He hasn’t done very well at Wimbledon in the past. Until this year, he never exceeded the fourth round. He doesn’t have much of a liking for grass-court tennis, preferring the true, predictable bounces produced by hard courts.And there he was Wednesday afternoon on the No. 1 court against Eubanks, who was blasting serves and following them up with drop volleys that Medvedev would barely run for. As Eubanks surged to a two-sets-to-one lead, Medvedev was struggling to focus, he said, and could not understand what was happening to him.The crowd was firmly in the corner of Eubanks, a massive underdog whom the British fans backed, even though he eliminated their top-ranked player, Cameron Norrie, last week. At one point, Medvedev rolled a perfect running backhand winner past Eubanks and put his finger to his ear, asking for some cheers. When they weren’t loud enough, Medvedev shook his hands in disgust.With the score so lopsided, he thought back to five years ago, long before he broke through as one of the most promising players of his generation. He was not having all that much success then, and he had yet to achieve a lot of the things he never thought would be possible: multiple Grand Slam finals, a U.S. Open title in 2021, some stints as the world No. 1.“That’s when I was like, ‘OK, I need to try to turn this match around and to do like I did many times to win these tough, tough battles at the Grand Slam,’” he said.And that’s just what he did, earning a spot in the semifinals against Alcaraz. Still, Medvedev was not ready to say he was at all comfortable on grass.May the most vulnerable man win. More

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      Carlos Alcaraz Has Been Studying the Grass Court Masters. That Means Andy Murray.

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      On a day many matches were rained out at the All England Club, Alcaraz displayed his continued improvement on grass, and what he has learned from Murray.Carlos Alcaraz took a little time to rest after coming up short in the French Open last month, and then he embarked on the next step toward strengthening one of the few remaining weaknesses in his tennis development — playing on grass.For Alcaraz, the 20-year-old world No. 1, that meant getting enough training sessions and matches on the surface that is at once the most traditional and most quirky in the sport. It also meant hours of watching videos of Andy Murray, the two-time Wimbledon champion and one of the masters of grass court tennis.On a day of rain that caused the cancellation or suspension of nearly every match not contested on the two covered courts at the All England Club, Alcaraz showed that his homework was paying off, and Murray provided the young Spaniard with a fresh batch of study material.Alcaraz has never advanced past the round of 16 at Wimbledon, but he has left no doubt about his goals for his third go-round at this most venerated of tennis competitions.“To win the tournament,” he said after the 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 pounding he delivered to Jeremy Chardy of France. “I have a lot of confidence right now.”An afternoon of play against Chardy, who had announced that he planned to retire after this tournament, was sure to help with that. There was little chance that Chardy was going to provide much of a challenge for Alcaraz at 36 years old, ranked 542nd in the world, and with just one tour level win this year.But for Alcaraz, who grew up mostly playing on red clay, the value of the day came not from the difficulty of his opponent. It came from spending more time on the sport’s most beguiling surface. With each match at Wimbledon Alcaraz gets closer to the inevitable — when the most talented young player becomes every bit as good on grass as he is everywhere else.Alcaraz, left, and Andy Murray at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna in 2021.Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty ImagesThis is where watching videos of Murray comes in. Alcaraz knows how to hit a tennis ball as well as and as hard as anyone, and his drop shot is as good as it gets on clay and hard courts. He’s also just about the fastest player in the game, especially on clay and hard courts. But he has said he needs to learn how to adapt his speed and his repertoire of shots to the grass.Few players have shown how to do that better than Murray, who won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, and showed why Tuesday afternoon in his 6-3, 6-0, 6-1 dismantling of Ryan Peniston, a fellow Briton.There are others who have conquered grass, of course, namely Roger Federer, who won a record eight men’s singles titles at Wimbledon and spent the afternoon chatting quietly in the front row of the royal box with Catherine, Princess of Wales, after he was celebrated with a video and a standing ovation. Alcaraz has studied his matches, too.And then there is Novak Djokovic, who has won the last four singles titles here, seven overall, and is on a 29-match Wimbledon winning streak. The problem with studying Djokovic is that he moves differently than everyone else on grass.Djokovic has somehow figured out how to glide and slide as though he were on clay or a hard court. When others try to play that way, they often end up on their backsides or with a strained groin. It is a style of grass court tennis that should come with a “don’t try this” warning.Alcaraz didn’t. Not on his way to the title at the grass court tuneup at Queen’s Club two weeks ago, or against Chardy on Tuesday, when he displayed plenty of signs of his Murray/Federer imitation game.Alcaraz took on balls ever so slightly earlier, a necessary move since they barely bounce on grass. He decelerated and turned with a series of quick stutter steps instead of his usual lightning quick plant-and-pivot. He showed off his improving serve, firing 10 aces, with plenty of them sliding off the court, including a final one on match point into the deep-wide corner of the service box that slid off the court before Chardy could move for it.“Every time that I get out to the court playing, it’s better for me,” he said when it was over. “I get more experience that is really, really important on that surface.”Murray does not lack for experience on grass and has almost always looked comfortable at the All England Club, making the third round in his debut in the main draw in 2005, when he was just 18 years old. Tuesday’s win over Peniston provided plenty of grass court study tips.Alcaraz often talks about how he begins every match wanting to play aggressively. Murray showed that on grass, aggression can take many forms beyond Alcaraz’s crushing forehands.Andy Murray in action in his first-round match on Tuesday.Hannah Mckay/ReutersHe played blocked backhand returns of serve that died in the front of the court to set up passing shots and sent drop volleys nearly sideways. In some rallies he produced a series of strokes that passed ever closer to the top of the net, and slid ever lower as they landed on the grass. One passing shot while Peniston was at the net darted toward his feet as though it fell off a table as soon as it passed over the tape. It was all over in two hours and 1 minute, one of Murray’s easier days on Centre Court, though he confessed to feeling nervous early on.“I like to feel that way,” he said “If I was going on the court and felt flat, didn’t have any emotion when I’m walking out there, that’s something that would probably be a bit wrong.”When Peniston committed his final error, Murray celebrated with the slightest of fist pumps and a brief wave to the crowd.He noted that the last time Federer had watched him on Centre Court was in the final of the 2012 Olympics, when Federer was cheering on his countryman and Murray’s opponent that day, Stan Wawrinka.“I was glad to get a few claps today,” Murray said.Murray skipped the French Open to begin his preparations for Wimbledon, the tournament he believes offers him the best chance to play into the second week.Those chances likely improved Tuesday when the match between his potential opponents, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem, was suspended shortly after Thiem won the first set. They will likely resume Wednesday, with the winner taking on Murray, almost undoubtedly on Centre Court, Thursday.Murray said he does not study draws, preferring instead to focus only on his next match rather than waste time on hypotheticals. If he did, he would find a potential opponent in the semifinals who would be familiar with his tricks.That would be Alcaraz. More

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      Novak Djokovic Moves to the Precipice of Tennis Supremacy

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      Djokovic seized a spot in the French Open final with a win over a struggling Carlos Alcaraz. In the final on Sunday, Casper Ruud stands in the way of Djokovic’s 23rd Grand Slam singles title.The Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros has long been Rafael Nadal’s second home.He has won 14 French Open men’s singles titles. His record at Roland Garros is 112-3, and a silver statue of him sits on the grounds.So maybe it’s fitting that Novak Djokovic has a chance for a career-crowning moment on Sunday — a 23rd Grand Slam singles title, one more than Nadal — on the very court where his rival has dominated this generation.If Djokovic, the 36-year-old Serbian champion, can pull that off — and he will be a heavy favorite to do so against Casper Ruud of Norway — it will be the tennis equivalent of Djokovic barging into Nadal’s house, raiding his refrigerator and plopping down on his living room couch to watch a “Godfather” marathon.“There is history on the line,” Djokovic said after his four-set win over Carlos Alcaraz, the world No. 1, on Friday. “I like the feeling.”In Ruud — who dominated Alexander Zverev, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 — Djokovic will face someone who has made three of the last five Grand Slam finals but who lost in his previous two finals. Ruud has yet to take a set from Djokovic across four head-to-head matches, which puts Djokovic in prime position to eclipse Nadal.Whether tennis fans outside Serbia like it or not, Djokovic has been managing this sort of feat for the better part of 15 years, and he shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. It started when he transformed elite tennis into a three-way battle for supremacy from its previous existence as a binary rivalry/love fest between Nadal and Roger Federer. With a win on Sunday, Djokovic would be the only player among that trio with at least three singles championships at each Grand Slam.Two years ago, he became the only man to beat Nadal twice at the French Open. The Federer faithful have long clung to the notion that their man will always be the ruler of the sport’s most hallowed ground: Centre Court at Wimbledon. Djokovic won his seventh Wimbledon singles championship last year and can draw even with Federer next month at the All England club.On Friday afternoon at Roland Garros, he was up to his old tricks once more against Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spaniard and top seed who was looking to move one step closer to completing his takeover of the sport. Djokovic and Alcaraz had shown themselves to be a level better than anyone else during the past year as they took turns winning Grand Slam titles and clamoring for the world’s top ranking.The match had figured to be one for the ages, a clash of generations and a potential torch passing — or really a torch-seizing — moment for the sport.Instead, Djokovic scored a victory for the old guard, registering a kind of technical knockout against a cramping Alcaraz. Djokovic prevailed in four sets, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, as Alcaraz crumbled in the face of the magnitude of the moment.It was a victory of wisdom and experience on a day when Alcaraz, in a moment of raw frankness, said he had been overcome by the idea of facing Djokovic on this giant stage. The cramps had nothing to do with fatigue or nutrition, he said. They were all about the stress of playing in just his second Grand Slam semifinal, against someone playing in his 45th.Carlos Alcaraz said he had been nervous playing against Djokovic in a late stage of the tournament. James Hill for The New York Times“Being in one of the greatest tournaments of the world, maybe for the first time in his career, he was expected to win,” Djokovic said. “He was maybe not an underdog chasing the title and trying to win.”Alcaraz started the match as nervous as he had ever been, he said, and the tension built from there into something he had never felt on a tennis court before.“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” Alcaraz said of the cramps after the match. “The main thing, it was the tension.”Djokovic said he could easily relate to what Alcaraz had experienced. Early in his career, in the late rounds of the biggest tournaments, sometimes with championships on the line, his body failed him, for no other reason than the stress of what was unfolding around him.“It’s a part of the learning curve,” he said.Alcaraz said he had felt cramps before, but nothing like this. His right arm tightened in the first set, and by the third set the cramps had spread throughout his body. He knew exactly why.“If someone says that he gets into the court with no nerves playing against Novak, he lies,” Alcaraz said. “Playing a semifinal of a Grand Slam, you have a lot of nerves, but even more with facing Novak.” The next time he plays Djokovic might be different, he said, “but the nerves will be there.”For more than two hours, it had looked as though it might be the match for the ages. Djokovic played nearly perfectly in the first set, only for Alcaraz to showcase his power and his magical shotmaking in the next one.That included a mouthwatering winner on a full sprint toward the back of the court, during which he spun 180 degrees around the ball and then suddenly knifed a crosscourt forehand that skittered on the sideline tape. It sent the crowd into a frenzy and had Djokovic clapping his racket. After they had split sets, there was every reason to believe that the showdown would go five sets and last more than four hours, like so many classic matches Djokovic has played during his storied career.It didn’t. Not even close.Alcaraz began cramping up in the third set against Djokovic.James Hill for The New York TimesIn the third set, Djokovic quickly pushed Alcaraz into the most taxing tennis he had had to play in the tournament. Alcaraz, barely able to walk, headed for his chair after two games and asked for treatment from a trainer. The move cost him the next game, one in which he would have served, because the request did not occur during a scheduled changeover.That hardly mattered, though, because Alcaraz still had trouble moving when he returned to the court. He quickly lost the next four games and left the court for another break. He came back slightly stronger, but the lightning-quick movement that is one of the hallmarks of his game remained missing in action.The outcome became a mere matter of time, which was fitting, because in a sense, Djokovic had made it that way from the start of the afternoon.Sunday will be Djokovic’s 34th Grand Slam singles final. Not long ago, one might have guessed he would be facing Nadal on the other side of the net. But Nadal pulled out of this tournament with hip and leg injuries, leaving a grand stage for Djokovic.With Alcaraz out of the way, and with few expecting Ruud to be a tougher challenge, the pressure will fall squarely on Djokovic. That is exactly how he likes it.“I’m very happy to be in this position to write history of this sport, but I’m just thinking about winning the next match,” Djokovic said.Usually, he does. More

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      Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic to Meet in French Open Semifinals

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      Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, who have played each other only once, will finally do so again on Friday in the French Open semifinals. Can the ultimate young talent beat the ultimate tennis mind?A moment arrives nearly every time a younger player seizes the advantage over Novak Djokovic, with designs of toppling him from his perch at the top of tennis.It doesn’t matter how deep a hole Djokovic has dug for himself, or how well the whippersnapper on the other side of the net might be playing.Maybe Djokovic is down by two sets, as he was against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the French Open final two years ago and against Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year. Perhaps Djokovic is hobbling around the court with an injury after letting his opponent draw even, as he was after four sets against Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open in 2021, when he had torn an abdominal muscle and coughed up a two-set lead.Then the other guy begins to think he might actually be on the verge of something grand, just as Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish sensation, might do on Friday at the French Open in his semifinal showdown with Djokovic, a match the sport has been yearning for since the spring of 2022.The racket becomes a little heavier, the elbow a little tighter, as Djokovic’s foes start to imagine pulling off the win. After all these years, all these matches in the deep end of a Grand Slam tournament, Djokovic, 36, can spot it from a mile away.He doesn’t have to. Djokovic, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, is within 80 feet, and he believes in his heart that everything is about to go his way.It happened again on Tuesday after more than two hours of struggle against Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals. Khachanov, the big, burly Russian with a hammer-like serve and forehand and nearly a decade less mileage on his legs, had taken the first set and forced a tiebreaker in the second. He had his opening.“He’s always there, you know, he’s always pushing,” said Karen Khachanov, who lost to Djokovic on Tuesday though he won the first set. “He always tries to find a way.”James Hill for The New York TimesOr not. A perfect, 7-0 tiebreaker drew Djokovic even. A break of serve in the first game of the next set put him ahead. Khachanov was finished.“The energy of the court shifted to my side,” Djokovic said after dispatching Khachanov.But when Djokovic faces Alcaraz, who has taken the No. 1 ranking from him twice in the past nine months, it will be a test against youth unlike anything Djokovic has faced before. The two have played only once, in May 2022, in Madrid; Djokovic and Alcaraz kept missing each other for one reason or another in the 13 months since.“A complete player,” Lorenzo Musetti, 21, of Italy, an Alcaraz victim this week in the fourth round, said of the player he came to know on Europe’s junior circuit.Singular moments when one generation takes over from another can feel like the shifting of tectonic plates. Every so often, men’s tennis delivers a torch-passing match: Pete Sampras tearing through John McEnroe at the 1990 U.S. Open; Roger Federer beating Sampras on Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2001. Is another one at hand?Daniil Medvedev, the world’s second-ranked player, and the only player currently in his 20s to beat Djokovic in a Grand Slam final, said not long ago that it is nearly impossible to beat Djokovic until you have first lost to him several times. Opponents need to get used to his shot patterns and his relentless ability to make them hit one more ball after they think they have ended the point.Not so for Alcaraz. Alcaraz beat Djokovic in their lone meeting, in a deciding-set tiebreaker no less (albeit in a best-of-three-sets match). So far Alcaraz has exhibited none of the fragility displayed against Djokovic in big moments by his contemporaries, or even the players a few years older than he is who were supposed to be the next generation of tennis stars.“I really want to play that match,” Alcaraz said late Tuesday after he blasted through Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals to lock in the showdown with Djokovic. “I’m going to enjoy it.”Maybe.One of the age-old adages about sports in general and tennis in particular is that by the time athletes have gained the wisdom and experience necessary to truly crack their sport’s code, their bodies have betrayed them. Djokovic has been giving this idea a run for its money.That is not accidental. He almost never drinks alcohol. He tries to sleep eight and a half hours a night, with a focus on his prime R.E.M. sleep hours. His postmatch gym and stretching routine sometimes looks as hard as a normal person’s workout.It is also difficult to argue that there is a sounder, more developed brain in tennis. Djokovic long ago redrew the angles of the game, finding new shots to hit and new ways to win matches and titles, becoming the world’s top-ranked player in an era when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were making that as hard as it had ever been. These days, he changes the pace and rhythm of points with ease, like a baseball pitcher mixing in fastballs, curveballs, sinkers and changeups in every at-bat. And then he uses a serve-and-volley like a player from the 1980s, just to make sure everyone knows he can do that, too.He has spent years trading notes on mental fortitude with superstar athletes in tennis and other sports — Boris Becker, Kobe Bryant, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, to name a few. He meditates. He knows how to focus when he needs to like no one else. He has played five tiebreakers in this tournament without making an unforced error.Approaching his 45th Grand Slam semifinal, Djokovic has become a master of the five-set format, its almost inevitable emotional dips and swings. He seems to spend the first set gathering information about his opponent. If he loses that set, as he did in the last two Wimbledon finals, or even the next one, no big deal. There’s still plenty of time.“He’s always there, you know, he’s always pushing,” Khachanov said. “He always tries to find a way.”Whether that will work against Alcaraz is Friday’s great mystery. Alcaraz has so far shown so many of the benefits of youth — speed, strength, power, the optimism of a player who has scarcely any bad days — and so few of the pitfalls. He plays with a kind of limitless joy and freedom that other players struggle to comprehend, in the same way they struggle to handle the velocity of his forehand and his unmatched improvisational shotmaking.“He is able to make any shots on the court,” said Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz’s coach.James Hill for The New York TimesJuan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz’s coach, said he has always wanted to surge a step ahead. When he was playing Futures tournaments, in the sport’s third tier, he believed he was ready for Challengers, the second tier; when he was playing Challengers, he believed he was ready for the main tour.“He is able to make any shots on the court,” Ferrero said. “If you ask him to go to the net in a match point, he is able to do it. Or if I ask to return and go to the net, he is able to do it and make the drop shot.”He can play long points or short ones. Whatever the moment calls for.After Tuesday night, Tsitsipas had lost to both Djokovic and Alcaraz on the court where the two will face off Friday. Like everyone else, Tsitsipas said he had sized up the match as a showdown between the game’s most advanced brain, a player who seeks to maneuver his opponent and control every shot, and the game’s purest and fastest of talents.“One has experience, the other one has legs and moves like Speedy Gonzales,” Tsitsipas said. “One can hit huge, super big shots; and the other one prefers precision, to apply pressure and make his opponent move as much as possible.”Who will win?“I root for the kids,” Tsitsipas said.Against Djokovic, they need all the help they can get. More

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      When Will Alcaraz and Djokovic Play Each Other at the French Open?

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      If everything goes right in the quarterfinals Tuesday for Alcaraz and Djokovic, the two most dominant players on the men’s tour, the duel everyone has been waiting for will happen.Eight days ago, 128 men began competing in singles at the French Open. Pretty much everyone has been focused on two of them.Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic moved one step closer on Sunday to a potential semifinal showdown. They clinically disposed of overmatched opponents who often struggled to get points and games, much less sets, in back-to-back matches in front of a packed house on the Philippe Chatrier court, offering a look at what may be coming to that stadium before the week ends.First, Djokovic took apart Juan Pablo Varillas, a 27-year-old Peruvian who has spent the last decade beating the back bushes of the sport. He had never won a match in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament before this year’s French Open and enjoyed a storybook ride through the first week. Djokovic ended all that in 1 hour, 57 minutes, expending what energy he needed in the 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win and not an ounce more.“I know what my goal is here,” he said, and he did not have to explain what it was.Then it was showtime, as Alcaraz, the 20-year-old world No. 1, took the court against Lorenzo Musetti, an Italian who is just 10 months older and has almost as flashy a game.That one took 2:08 and had the identical score, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, for Alcaraz.“My best match of the tournament so far,” he said.For more than a year, Djokovic, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, and Alcaraz, the new king of the sport who won his first major title at the U.S. Open last year, have somehow been missing each other.Sometimes one would lose before he got deep enough to face the other. Djokovic’s decision not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 forced him to miss the hard court tournaments in North America last summer and this spring. When Djokovic returned for the fall season and the Australian summer, Alcaraz was hurt. They could not connect.Now they are six sets away. Alcaraz has to beat the fifth seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, on Tuesday. They have played four matches and Alcaraz has won them all.Djokovic plays 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia. They have played nine times, with Djokovic winning eight.That Alcaraz and Djokovic will face each other in a semifinal on Friday is not a certainty. Even the best players have bad days. Both Tsitsipas and Khachanov like playing on clay more than on any other surface. Djokovic has battled a sore elbow recently. Alcaraz has shown in the past eight months that he can be prone to injury. Upsets happen.“Of course you’re looking, you’re analyzing everyone’s game,” Novak Djokovic said.Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersThat said, on Sunday Djokovic and Alcaraz delivered performances — and self-assessments about them — that lent an air of near inevitability to a coming showdown.Djokovic has long been the master of match management at Grand Slam tournaments, which require men to win seven best-of-five-set matches to claim the title and almost always separate the great from the very good. He starts playing at the level of energy expenditure, both physical and emotional, that he has decided he needs for the match, and dials it up only if the need arises.So many of his winners Sunday, hit on angles that he saw and Varillas did not, may not have had the zip he displays against other opponents. They did not have to.He was up by 4-0 before the match was roughly 20 minutes old against an opponent who had never before faced anyone at his level.“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 said.Djokovic has been in this position before, one match away from the heavyweight duel with one of the biggest names in the sport, often Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. Last year it was a quarterfinal match against Nadal, who also has 22 Grand Slam singles titles. The year before Nadal loomed in the semifinals. Those both came to fruition.Djokovic did not pretend he has not been paying attention to what will come after what comes next.“You always follow the top guys in your half, how they’re playing,” he said. “Of course you’re looking, you’re analyzing everyone’s game.”Yes, he is focused on himself, he said, “but of course I do keep in mind what the others are doing.”The “others,” of course, means Alcaraz, who, perhaps because of his youth, comes to his matches from a vantage point other than energy conservation, looking instead to create the greatest spectacle possible.He relished the prospect of Sunday’s match with Musetti, his smile breaking out and his eyes lighting up as he spoke of playing another 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 said.At times, that can be as important to him as winning. He almost never sees a drop shot he does not want to race to, a lob he does not think he can chase down so he can extend the rally with a shot between the legs, even if it means giving his opponent an easy overhead, which he will also try to chase. He is the one making the magic but also its biggest fan.After his win on Sunday, he confessed that sometimes, after his best shots, he wants to look up at the big screen in the stadium and drool over the replay along with everyone else in the crowd and watching on television at home.“A lot of times,” he said.Six more sets. Then, he and Djokovic will get to put on the show Roland Garros has been waiting for. More

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      Carlos Alcaraz toma el escenario del Roland Garros

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      Carlos Alcaraz es tan bueno y tan joven, y gana tantas veces, que su éxito parece predeterminado.Por supuesto, alguien así de rápido, con manos tan suaves como las de un artesano y un físico que lo coloca justo en la zona Ricitos de Oro de los grandes del tenis moderno —ni demasiado alto ni demasiado bajo—, se convertiría en el número uno del mundo más joven en los 50 años de historia del ranking de la Asociación de Tenistas Profesionales (ATP). También tiene buenos genes. Su padre fue tenista profesional a nivel nacional en España cuando era adolescente.Así que esto estaba predeterminado para Alcaraz, el campeón de 20 años que llegó a París como el favorito inasequible para ganar el Abierto de Francia, ¿no es cierto?Quizás no.Como sucede tan a menudo en los deportes, y especialmente en el tenis, donde la exposición y el entrenamiento tempranos son esenciales, hubo un elemento de suerte que ayudó a crear al heredero deportivo de la troika conformada por Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer y Novak Djokovic y que ha gobernado el campeonato masculino durante la mayor parte de las últimas dos décadas.Esa suerte finalmente tomó la forma del logo de una compañía local de dulces, que adornaba las camisetas que Alcaraz usaba durante sus partidos desde que tenía 10 años. Todo fue gracias a encuentros fortuitos con Alfonso López Rueda, el tenista presidente de Postres Reina, una empresa española de postres y dulces conocida por sus flanes y yogures. El interés de López Rueda por Alcaraz y el apoyo que le permitió viajar por Europa y comenzar a competir contra chicos mayores en escenarios desconocidos puede ser una explicación de la forma en que Alcaraz, desde el comienzo de su corta carrera, ha mostrado casi siempre una especie de serenidad alegre, incluso cuando el escenario se hizo más grande y el centro de atención más intenso.Carlos Alcaraz ha usado el logo de Postres Reina en su camiseta durante los partidos desde antes de los 10 años.Manuel Romano/NurPhoto, vía Getty ImagesEl apoyo de la empresa de dulces permitió a Alcaraz viajar por Europa a los torneos.Samuel Aranda para The New York Times“Algunas personalidades son muy buenas para eso, algunas tienen que aprender”, dijo Paul Annacone, quien entrenó a los grandes jugadores Federer y Pete Sampras, entre otros. “Él realmente parece disfrutar del ambiente (ganar, perder, lo que sea), parece aceptarlo”.Al parecer, la mayor fortuna que puede tener un aspirante a tenista es haber nacido de padres que jugaron al más alto nivel. Los rangos profesionales, especialmente en el lado de los tenistas hombres, son terribles con los nepo babies, como se les conoce a los hijos de figuras exitosas que quieren ingresar al rubro de los padres. Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Sebastian Korda, Taylor Fritz y Ben Shelton son descendientes de ex jugadores profesionales. Todos ellos tenían una raqueta en sus manos a una edad temprana y acceso casi ilimitado a alguien que sabía muy bien qué hacer con ella.Para todos los demás, algo de suerte es clave.Las habilidades que requiere el tenis profesional son muy especializadas, y el proceso largo y costoso de perfeccionarlas tiene que comenzar a una edad muy temprana. Pero el sistema de desarrollo de jugadores en la mayoría de los países está fracturado y, en el mejor de los casos, es regido por la casualidad, con programas escolares que son en su mayoría limitados. O una familia decide conscientemente exponer a un niño pequeño al tenis, o el niño no juega, al menos no en serio.Así que no sorprende que tantas de las historias de creación en el tenis profesional parezcan involucrar una sucesión de eventos fortuitos e inconexos.Frances Tiafoe probablemente no terminaría como semifinalista de Grand Slam si su padre, un inmigrante de Sierra Leona, se convertía en encargado de mantenimiento en un parque de oficinas en lugar de en un club de tenis local.Novak Djokovic tuvo la suerte de conocer a Jelena Gencic, una de las mejores entrenadoras de Serbia, cuando tenía 6 años y ella dirigía un entrenamiento en las canchas cerca del restaurante de sus padres en Kopaonik, en las montañas serbias cerca de Montenegro.Arthur Ashe estaba viajando por Camerún en 1971 cuando vio a un escolar de 11 años con talento en bruto para explotar. Llamó a su amigo Philippe Chatrier de la Federación Francesa de Tenis y le dijo que fuera a echar un vistazo. Ese chico era Yannick Noah, el último francés en ganar el Abierto de Francia.Al igual que con los demás, los dones y habilidades sobrenaturales de Alcaraz jugaron el papel más importante en su buena fortuna. Cuando tuvo la oportunidad de impresionar, lo hizo, pero antes la suerte tuvo que brindarle una oportunidad.La decisión del abuelo de Alcaraz de instalar canchas de arcilla roja en un club de El Palmar resultó por jugar a favor de su nieto.Samuel Aranda para The New York TimesLa historia de esa oportunidad comienza con la decisión del abuelo de Alcaraz hace décadas de incorporar canchas de tenis y una piscina en un club de caza en El Palmar, un suburbio de la ciudad de Murcia. Hubiera sido más barato poner todas las canchas duras, pero a los españoles les encantan las de la arcilla roja, también llamada tierra batida. Entonces el abuelo Alcaraz (otro Carlos) se aseguró de incluir esas canchas en las instalaciones.Ahora avancemos hasta hace una decena de años. López Rueda, loco por el tenis, es el director ejecutivo de Postres Reina, con sede en Caravaca de la Cruz. Pero a López Rueda no solo le gusta el tenis; le gusta jugar al tenis en arcilla roja. Vive en la misma región que el clan Alcaraz, y las mejores y más accesibles canchas de tierra batida para él están en un club en El Palmar, así que juega allí, comentó José Lag, ejecutivo de Postres Reina desde hace mucho tiempo y amigo de la familia Alcaraz, quien habló en nombre de su jefe, López Rueda.En el club se hizo amigo del padre de Alcaraz y jugó como compañero de dobles de su tío. Asimismo, el hijo de López Rueda, que es tres años mayor que Alcaraz, contó con el mismo entrenador, Kiko Navarro, que no paraba de delirar con el talento de Carlitos. Un día, López Rueda accedió a ver jugar al niño y no se parecía a nada que hubiera visto antes. Carlitos lo tenía todo, pero los recursos de su familia eran limitados. Su padre era entrenador de tenis y administrador del club, y su madre estaba ocupada criando al niño y a sus hermanos menores.López Rueda accedió a prestarle a la familia 2000 euros para viajar a un torneo, pero luego empezó a pensar en grande y decidió involucrar a su empresa para apoyar a este jovencito local que ya era capaz de vencer a competidores más altos, más fuertes y mayores.Postres Reina había apoyado durante mucho tiempo a los equipos locales de baloncesto y fútbol, ​​pero el tenis era el deporte favorito de López Rueda y la empresa nunca había patrocinado a un atleta individual. Alcaraz se convirtió en el primero, luciendo el logo de la empresa en sus camisetas.El apoyo de la compañía, que duró toda la adolescencia de Alcaraz, le permitió seguir accediendo a los mejores entrenadores de su región y viajar por toda Europa para disputar los torneos más competitivos.“No se hizo con un interés publicitario”, dijo Lag. “Era solo para ayudarlo. Nunca pensamos que sería el número uno”.Alcaraz con López Rueda. Postres Reina nunca había patrocinado a un deportista individual antes de Alcaraz.Cortesía de Jose LagAl ver el éxito de Alcaraz, IMG, el conglomerado de deportes y entretenimiento, lo fichó a los 13 años, brindándole aún más acceso, especialmente a su actual entrenador, el exnúmero uno del mundo Juan Carlos Ferrero.Existe una buena posibilidad de que Alcaraz se hubiera convertido eventualmente en un jugador de primer nivel si López Rueda nunca lo hubiera visto. La Real Federación Española de Tenis, que tiene una de las mejores fuentes de desarrollo de talentos del mundo, probablemente se habría enterado de él en poco tiempo.Max Eisenbud, director de tenis de IMG, dijo que en cualquier historia de éxito en el tenis, el ingrediente más importante es una familia sólida dispuesta a tener una visión a largo plazo hacia el éxito de un chico.“Esa es la receta secreta”, dijo Eisenbud durante una entrevista reciente, pero reconoció que la asistencia financiera para una familia que la necesita ciertamente puede ayudar.Cuando un jugador avanza tan rápido como Alcaraz, pasando de estar fuera del top 100 en mayo de 2021 al número uno solo 16 meses después, se puede atribuir un papel en el resultado a cada detalle de su desarrollo.Los compañeros de Alcaraz han visto con asombro cómo ha elevado su nivel de juego en cada torneo, en una era en la que el foco de atención constante tortura a muchos de ellos. Durante los primeros meses de Alcaraz desafiando los peldaños más altos de la gira, Alexander Zverev se maravilló de su habilidad para jugar “simplemente por diversión”.Alcaraz dijo que sin importar lo que la gente viera, acostumbrarse a los ambientes cada vez más estridentes y llenos de presión tomó algún tiempo, pero aprendió rápido. Una paliza de Nadal en Madrid hace dos años ayudó, pero su mentalidad nunca cambió.“Siempre quise jugar en los grandes estadios”, dijo. Y ha parecido que realmente fue así.Alcaraz durante su derrota en los dieciseisavos de final del Abierto de Italia. Había ganado tres de sus cuatro torneos anteriores antes de una salida anticipada en Roma.Guglielmo Mangiapane/ReutersAlcaraz ganó la final del Abierto de EE. UU. de 2022 para reclamar su primer título de singles importante y obtener el puesto número 1 en el ranking.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesPara Alcaraz, el tenis es principalmente una alegría, desde su primera victoria en un torneo de Grand Slam en una cancha trasera en el Abierto de Australia en febrero de 2021, hasta sus victorias consecutivas sobre Nadal y Djokovic en el Abierto de Madrid en 2022, a su enfrentamiento en la semifinal contra Tiafoe en el Abierto de Estados Unidos en septiembre pasado frente a 23.000 fanáticos y con Michelle Obama sentada en la primera fila, hasta su triunfo en la final dos días después.¿Cómo es posible? Allen Fox, campeón de la División I y cuartofinalista de Wimbledon en 1965, que más tarde se convirtió en uno de los principales psicólogos deportivos, utilizó el término que utilizan los profesionales cuando no existe una explicación racional. Describió a Alcaraz como un “genio” y una “rareza genética”.“La única forma en que pierde es cuando falta”, dijo Fox. “Juega su mismo juego de alto riesgo y nunca quita el pie del acelerador”.Matthew Futterman es un periodista deportivo con larga experiencia y autor de dos libros, Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed y Players: How Sports Became a Business. More

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      The Agony of Playing Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic at the French Open

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      Little-known players learned humbling lessons when they drew Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic in the first round of the French Open.Aleksandar Kovacevic did plenty of tossing and turning Sunday night before finally settling in for what he thought was about six hours of restless sleep.He had good reason to be nervous. Kovacevic, who is 24 years old and the world’s 114th-ranked player, had a noon tennis date in the first round of the French Open with Novak Djokovic, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.The only person with a more daunting assignment perhaps was Flavio Cobolli of Italy. Cobolli, who is 21 and ranked 159th, survived the qualifying tournament last week, only to be rewarded with an opening-round confrontation with Carlos Alcaraz.It didn’t go so well for either of the unknowns.Nine games and roughly 35 minutes into Cobolli’s match, an Alcaraz forehand sailed long and Cobolli let out a scream, swung his racket in celebration and let a smile spread across his face. He pumped his fist to the crowd as he walked to his chair. He had finally won a game against the best player in the world, who was playing like, well, the best player in the world.“I did the best I could,” Cobolli said.Alexsandar Kovacevic grew up idolizing Novak Djokovic, who defeated him in three sets on Monday.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesKovacevic, who lost to Djokovic, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(1), had a pretty good idea of what that felt like, too, even though he lasted more than two hours on the court with a player he grew up idolizing.“There was some points, passing shots that he hits, and they’re just points where I feel like I had no chance sometimes,” Kovacevic said. “And those are definitely humbling.”It is a truism of tennis that the top players hate playing the first round of a Grand Slam. Anything but a cruise to victory is cause for concern. Also, there is always the possibility of epic failure in the form of a loss to someone few have heard of.Whatever discomfort Djokovic and Alcaraz may have felt walking onto the courts at Roland Garros on Monday, they mostly managed it with ease, especially Alcaraz. He made an early contribution to the tournament highlight reel, curling a backhand around the net post for a winner early in the second set. Djokovic had more of a workout, and even lost his serve late in his match after getting windblown clay in his eyes.It helped that the stars drew opponents with three digits in their rankings whose recent experience didn’t have much in common with their own. Kovacevic had a particularly winding journey to his date on the French Open’s center court with Djokovic.His father, Milan, immigrated to America from Serbia to pursue a doctorate in computer science from U.C.L.A. His mother is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kovacevic grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, about 500 yards from the green clay of the Central Park tennis complex.In ninth grade, he still wasn’t good enough to play singles for Beacon High School, a public school in Midtown, even though he was spending afternoons training at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Randall’s Island.Things started to click after he left Beacon to train in Florida while taking classes at home. At a tournament one summer, he played a top junior who was planning to attend the University of Illinois. His opponent told him he should join him at the school, so he did, even though he didn’t have much interest in college. By the time he finished five years later, he was ranked in the low 400s and figured he would give pro tennis a shot.Since then he has mostly been playing in the tennis hinterlands, though he did win a match in the main draw of the prestigious Miami Open in March.“It has not been the most glorious over the last couple of years,” he said.“I’m standing in Chatrier in front of a packed crowd, playing the best player to ever pick up a racket,” Kovacevic said of Djokovic. “It’s something that you got to take in for a second, but also push away and try to focus and play.”Jean-Francois Badias/Associated PressOn Monday, Kovacevic made his Grand Slam debut against Djokovic on the main court at Roland Garros, Philippe Chatrier, though it wasn’t his first time meeting Djokovic.That happened at the U.S. Open when he was 6 and his Balkan-proud parents brought him to watch the 18-year-old Djokovic win an early-round match, long before Djokovic was the player he would become. And two years ago he warmed up Djokovic at the U.S. Open after coming within a point of qualifying to play.He has the pictures to prove it, and he has tried to incorporate elements of Djokovic’s game into his own. His squat as he waits for an opponent’s serve — knees wide, chest up, racket out front — has plenty of Djokovic in it, even if the rest of his game isn’t quite there yet.“Where I am in my career, like it shouldn’t be so crazy to me that I’m playing some of these guys,” he said. “But, you know, the little kid in me, I’m standing in Chatrier in front of a packed crowd, playing the best player to ever pick up a racket. It’s something that you got to take in for a second, but also push away and try to focus and play.”The way Alcaraz has started his career, he may eventually have something to say about who is the best player to pick up a racket. Everyone in tennis knows this, including Cobolli, who has also spent most of his brief career in the sport’s version of the minor leagues.He was in an elevator, still feeling good about qualifying for his first main draw Grand Slam match, when he looked at his phone and saw that his opponent was Alcaraz. He said he closed his eyes, ran his hand through his hair, and thought, “Oh no.”Roughly, three-quarters of an hour into the match, it was going as he dreaded it might. Alcaraz couldn’t miss and later said he felt “invincible,” like he would never lose a game. Cobolli barely had time to breathe between shots.The scoreboard said 6-0, 2-0. “He was playing incredible,” Cobolli said.Cobolli lasted just under two hours against Alcaraz.Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOn the bright side, there is nothing the French crowd loves more — other than a French player — than rallying behind a player who is getting blitzed. And by the time Cobolli got his legs under him, knotting the third set at 5-5, the crowd of nearly 10,000 on the Suzanne Lenglen court was chanting his name. It was like he was one of their own, especially after he saved three match points and broke Alcaraz’s serve to draw even in the set.“I felt important on the court,” Cobolli said.The final score was 6-0, 6-2, 7-5, the elapsed time 1 hour, 57 minutes.Now that Cobolli has seen up close what the best looks like, he said he understands better what he must do to compete — hit the weight room, he said with a grin as he pushed in at his chest with his hand. And get better at tennis.Hope springs eternal for him as it does for so many of the Kovacevics and Cobollis in the game. Just over two years ago, Alcaraz’s ranking had three digits, too. More