"Carlos Alcaraz is the best player in the world this year" admits Novak Djokovic

Tuesday, 10 May 2022 at 09:15

Updated at Wednesday, 13 November 2024 at 16:32

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byErik Virostko

Carlos Alcaraz won the 2022 Madrid Open, and one of his rivals, Novak Djokovic, called him the best player in the world.

The young Spaniard triumphed at the Barcelona Open, and he added a triumph at the Madrid Open shortly after that. As a result, he is currently undefeated in his last ten matches.

Alcaraz became the first player to ever defeat Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal back-to-back on a clay court and rose to sixth place in the ATP Rankings. After coming to Rome for the 2022 Italian Open, the current World No. 1 praised Alcaraz once more, calling him special.

"He definitely is special. Already he's breaking a lot of records as a teenager, winning two Masters events this year, a couple of 500s. So far he's the best player in the world, no question, this year with the results that he's been doing."

For Djokovic, it wasn't only about the results. As an athlete himself, the Serbian player knows how challenging the pressure sometimes can be, and that's something that Alcaraz dealt with perfectly during his trophy runs in Barcelona and Madrid.

"The way he was dealing with the pressure... In our match few days ago, how calm he was all the way till the [end] was impressive. He deserved to win the trophy."

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Djokovic even called Alcaraz 'a complete player' even though the Spaniard is still only 19. Still, the 20-time Grand Slam champion sees his incredible potential.

"Everything about his game is really impressive. He's a really complete player, can play equally well offensively and defensively. He's the talk of the sport."

Djokovic will kick off his 2022 Italian Open campaign already on Tuesday against Aslan Karatsev, who defeated Lloyd Harris in the first round. In the potential third-round clash, the Serbian could meet Stan Wawrinka or Laslo Djere, who he defeated in Belgrade a couple of weeks ago.