Carlos Alcaraz has been practicing with Novak Djokovic recently at the 2023 Paris Masters, but he isn't scared about the Serbian dissecting his game.
The battle between Alcaraz and Djokovic has been so close at times that any sort of advantage is crucial. Djokovic has a very analytical eye for tennis, which his career has proven multiple times.
He showed the ability to analyze the game of a player during a tennis match and then apply what he learned the next they faced each other. It was the same with Alcaraz as he played him much better the second time they faced each other, and part of that could be because of their practices.
We've seen the duo practicing together a few times now, but it's not something Alcaraz thinks about. In an exclusive interview with Eurosport, the Spaniard revealed that he's not afraid to give Djokovic an extended look at his tennis.
Yeah, full [intensity], in every practice! I think we practised [together] once in Madrid, and in Roland-Garros as well, it was like the third or fourth time. No, I’m not [scared he will get used to my game], there are a lot of videos and matches, we’ve played four times, so we know each other very well.
While Djokovic is clearly learning about the game of Alcaraz during their practice the same is happening on the other side as well. After all, the Spaniard has beaten Djokovic this year as well so perhaps those practices help him with that.
In a way, Alcaraz admitted to being obsessed with the way Djokovic plays, and that's pretty much solely to figure out how to best beat him.
What better way to do that than by playing the player in question as much as possible? So, as long as he's not afraid of it, it won't stop, and time will tell whether that was the right approach.
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