Djokovic Advances to Roland Garros Final, Sets Date with Ruud

Veteran Serbian Novak Djokovic emerged victorious from his match against the young Spaniard, world number one, Carlos Alcaras, in the semi-finals of the Roland Garros tournament, the second of the four major tennis tournaments, in their first confrontation in the Grand Slam tournament on Friday.

Djokovic defeated Alcaras 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in 3 hours and 23 minutes, and came close to winning the 23rd major title of his career.

The Serbian is playing his seventh final on French clay courts and the 34th in his career in a Grand Slam tournament.

Norway’s Casper Rudd, ranked fourth in the world, also reached the tournament final for the second year in a row, by defeating Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 on Friday in the semi-finals.

Ruud, who set up a final date with Djokovic in the final, lost the final last year against Spain’s Rafael Nadal in three sets.

It is the third time that Rudd has reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament, as he lost to Alcaras himself in the final of the United States Championship last year.

Djokovic, twice crowned at Roland Garros, will break his bond with Spaniard Nadal, who shares the record with him (22 titles each), if he beats Norwegian Casper Rudd, ranked fourth in the world, or German Alexander Zverev (27), who meet in the second semi-final. .

Australian Margaret Court holds the record for the largest number of Grand Slam titles for women and men (24), which she achieved during the sixties and seventies, knowing that American Serena Williams came close to equalizing this number, but she failed to achieve that, so her titles stopped at 23 before she announced her retirement.

And if he wins, Djokovic will become the first player to win at least three titles in each of the four major tournaments, while this achievement was achieved by Kurt Williams and German Steffi Graf for women.

The 36-year-old Serbian can also break Nadal’s record as the biggest winner in Roland Garros and regain the top spot in the world rankings for professional players from Alcaras, who suffered from severe muscle spasm in the last two sets.

“I feel sorry”

“First and foremost I have to say bad luck to Carlos, because at this level the last thing you want is cramping and physical problems in the final stages of a Grand Slam,” said Djokovic, who specializes in the semi-finals of a major tournament for the 45th time in his career.

“I feel for him, I feel sorry and I hope he can recover,” he added.

Alcaras’ physical struggles “killed” the suspense as he struggled to hold on after two thrilling sets, with Djokovic dominating the first before the Spaniard equalized in the second.

Alcaras, 20, grabbed the calf of his right leg, while Djokovic maintained his serve 1-1 in the third set, so the Spaniard decided to abandon the next half after he requested a medical time-out that is not permitted by law until he moved to the other side of the field.

Alcaras seemed to be a shadow of the player who started the match, as his movement was restricted on the field, while Djokovic continued to score points and runs. The Spaniard returned to the fourth set after a break that lasted for nearly 5 minutes, so he seemed more mobile, but after Djokovic saved a break point at the beginning of the fourth set, he settled it in his favor in the match.

Djokovic’s shortcomings

Before the confrontation between them, Alcaras stated that Djokovic, “physically, is a rock.”

A boulder, or rubber leg, is capable of providing maximum stretches.

However, since the start of the season, Djokovic’s body has shown flaws: a torn groin muscle at the Australian Open did not prevent him from winning the tournament and equaling Nadal’s record of 22 Grand Slam titles. An arm injury that has persisted since the start of the clay court season in April at the Monte Carlo Games.

But the Serb has proven his ability to overcome pain and injury in major tournaments.

Alcaras won more matches this year on clay than anyone else (25 out of 28 matches), and he competed in Paris with three titles on that court: Buenos Aires, Barcelona, ​​and Madrid in particular.

As for Djokovic, he lost the first set of the tournament in the quarter-finals against Russia’s Karen Khachanov (11), before losing the second against Alcaras.

The Serbian player did not achieve convincing results on the clay courts this season, as the best of them was reaching the quarter-finals in the Rome tournament.

But despite this, Alcaras, who defeated Djokovic in the only confrontation between them in the semi-finals of the Madrid Masters 2022, with a score of 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), says, “I must maintain the rhythm that he will print in every game.” Point. He’s played millions of games and we’ve all seen him reach invincibility.”

Alcaras played his second Grand Slam semi-final after the 2022 US Open semi-final, where he won the title.

On the other hand, the element of motivation was the first motivation for the players, as Alcaras said before the match, “It is the match that everyone wanted to see, and I wanted to play it because in order to be the best, you have to defeat the best.”

As for Djokovic, he stressed, “He is without a doubt the man to beat, so I can’t wait to play with him.”

Alcaras nominated his opponent to win, “It’s Novak. He won twice (2016 and 2021), and if he hadn’t fallen against the best player in history on this floor, he would have won more,” referring to Nadal’s 14-title victory at Roland Garros.