Australian Open Winner Carlos Alcaraz and runner-up Novak Djokovic at the presentation ceremony after Sunday's final in Melbourne.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
In a world obsessed with youth, much is made of the passion and drive of the young. It doesn’t hold a candle to the passion of the old. They have only so much time left, and they know it.
Novak Djokovic is ancient by tennis standards: 38, going on 39. His greatest rivals – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray – have all left the field of combat. He is the last old man standing.
By rights, he should have followed them. He has achieved everything he hoped to achieve and more: 101 tournament titles, 24 Grand Slam trophies, a record 428 weeks as the No. 1 player in the world. Not to mention winning a total of US$191-million in prize money. His status as the greatest of all time is unassailable.
Yet he yearns – positively hungers – for one more big win. Melbourne would have been the place to do it.
Carlos Alcaraz becomes youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam
He has won the Australian Open 10 times, another of his many records. The crowd at Melbourne Park loves him, despite that spot of unpleasantness over his unvaccinated status a few years ago. He first won here in 2008, when George W. Bush was president of the United States.
He came painfully, heart-breakingly close on Sunday. His opponent, of course, was Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish marvel who now occupies the place Djokovic held for so long: world No. 1.
Djokovic had every chance of taking him. He has proved in the past that he could defeat Alcaraz. His win-loss record against the younger man was 5-4. He beat him at the Olympics in 2024 to take the gold medal, leaving a devastated Alcaraz with the silver. He beat him again in the quarter-finals in Melbourne last year.
Yes, he lost to Alcaraz in two Wimbledon finals: in 2023 and 2024. But Djokovic was hardly washed up. He was world No. 4 coming to Melbourne. He made it into the semi-finals at all four Grand Slam tournaments last year, something out of this world for a player of his years.
When a reporter in Melbourne suggested that it must feel strange to be chasing two top players again, just as he chased Federer and Nadal in his early days, Djokovic instantly got his back up. “I’m chasing Jannik [Sinner] and Carlos? In which sense?” he demanded. Why weren’t they chasing him? He, after all, was the one with 24 – yes, 24 – Grand Slams.
He came to the year’s first Grand Slam looking fit and determined. After breezing through the first three rounds of play without losing a set, he had some luck: one opponent withdrew before their match and another retired from play with an injury when Djokovic was down two sets against him.
The 15,000 fans in Rod Laver Arena were on Djokovic's side, but the Serbian fell just short.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
But his epic victory over Italy’s Sinner in Friday’s semi-final quashed any notion that he needed good fortune to win. He put on what many tennis watchers consider one of the best performances of his long career, going toe-to-toe with the No. 2-ranked Sinner in a series of back-and-forth baseline battles that had the crowd roaring his name.
That brought him to Sunday’s championship duel with Alcaraz. It was a dream match-up: Best of all time meets best in the world.
“There is a lot at stake,” he said in a pre-recorded interview shown before the match got underway. “History is on the line.”
The 15,000 fans in Rod Laver Arena were clearly on his side, filling the big bowl with cheers of, ‘Novak, Novak, Novak.’ They erupted when he took the first set 6-2, showing the same mastery of the baseline that he did against Sinner. Alcarez looked uncertain, even deflated.
The Spaniard rebounded to take the second and third sets 6-2 and 6-3, but Djokovic was in it all the way, dealing a series of dead-on-arrival drop shots, decisive volleys and net-skimming forehands that were the equal of anything in his career. Alcaraz was just that much better, responding with a speed and a brilliance that no other player on Earth can equal.
Djokovic put on a brave final stand in the fourth set, and a dramatic fifth briefly looked possible, but Alcaraz closed it out 7-5 to take the championship, a first for him in Australia. That made him the youngest man in the modern history of professional tennis to win all four major tournaments – what is called a career Grand Slam. He also became the youngest man to win seven major titles, younger than Bjorn Borg, who was 23 when he did it in 1979. Alcaraz is all of 22.
But the truly amazing achievement of the tournament was Djokovic’s. He became the oldest player to reach the final of the Australian Open since Ken Rosewall won it in 1972. And he did it by beating the two-time defending champion, Sinner, a man who is 14 years his junior and who had bested him in their five previous meetings.
That he has amassed all the records he has over the years is amazing in itself. That he continues to compete at such a level in a young man’s game like 21st-century tennis is simply astounding.
How long can he continue? He seemed to hint in his concession talk on court that this might be his last visit to the Australian Open. But afterwards, he said, “I am going to keep pushing and see if I get another chance.”
Good. As wonderful as it is to see a young ace like Alcaraz wield his racket, watching an old battler like Djokovic match him shot for shot is better.