Bill Simons and Vinay Venkatesh
Paris
Paris was abuzz. All of tennis couldn’t wait – it was the match of the year. Heavyweight Novak Djokovic, arguably the greatest of all time with 22 Slams, 387 weeks at No. 1 and two French titles was flying high the banner of the Big 3, that’s won a total of 64 slams and has dominated since 2003, but now seemed to be aging out.
After all, the legs of Marlene Dietrich, the late great movie goddess, eventually lost their luster. Betty Davis got wrinkles. Jack Nicholson’s bluster became blubber. All things must pass.
Tennis’s overarching narrative is the story of Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest battles and generational transitions. 21-year-old Jimmy Connors destroyed 39-year-old Ken Rosewall at the 1974 Wimbledon.
It’s said that the young but burned out Bjorn Borg fled tennis knowing he couldn’t handle the force and fury of New York’s John McEnroe. Young bounding Roger Federer made the four-time Wimbledon defending champion Pete Sampras look distinctly normal in 2001.
Now it was Carlos Alcaraz’ turn to show the power of youth. Perfectly bred, the No. 1 player in the world had won the US Open and Indian Wells. He’d cruised through the French Open, dropping just one set. In his last outing he’d humbled Stefanos Tsitsipas. He was the 68% favorite to win today’s semi.
Alcaraz is the boy who would be a legend. Spanish men’s tennis seemed to be on the cusp of winning its 15th title in 18 years. Carlos was playing tennis of the future.
Still, Novak is the prevailing master of our era. Among other things, he had won 19 of his last 20 semis, had won eight of his last five-set matches and he has a stratospheric tennis IQ. He knew he’d started slowly in his quarterfinal against Karen Khachanov. Today, in the most anticipated match since the 2021 Medvedev-Djokovic US Open final, the Serb broke early from the gate. He prevailed in a delicious scramble exchange to draw first blood and go up 3-1.
Radio Roland Garros suggested that the 36-year-old was saying, “Remember me. I’m still the man…I may be 16 years older than you, but I still can get up to the net and put it away.”
Sliding adeptly and mixing it up, Nole moved tennis’ heir apparent up and back and from corner to corner. His cross-court forehand was on fire. He took it to the sometimes off-balance 20-year-old. Carlos’s power was spotty, his backhand returns were shaky. Yet there were moments of sheer brilliance – a stunning drop shot-lob combination. But the Spaniard couldn’t convert three break points in the seventh game of the opening set, and another one in the ninth game. Novak called on his underrated serve, his consistency, his command of the angles and his experience as he took the first set 6-3.
But Alacaraz is a battler who, in a thunderous flash, can turn defense into offense.
In the second game of the second set, the brilliant shotmaker dashed seven steps to the net to retrieve Nole’s delicate drop shot and then madly dashed back ten steps to get a Novak volley, pivoting brilliantly and unleashing a twisting forehand winner down the line. It was sheer athletic genius. The French roared.
“Goodness, this is starting to cook!” noted broadcaster Gigi Salmon. “The ball striking from these two,” said commentator Simon Cambers, “is out of this world…There’s no letup of the tension. Every game has the potential of a break.” The red clay was a canvas for scoops, flicks and dinks. “What sorcery are we seeing here?” asked Jason Goodall.
Suddenly, deep into the second set, the far more relaxed Alcaraz broke to love. After 2:10 of a scintillating battle, trumpets sounded. In the bright 87° sunlight the Spaniards chanted, “Olé!” The prospects of their dazzling hero were bright. The battle was even – a set all.
Alcaraz’s talents were at last on full display: power groundies to the corners, sublime dropshots and mind-boggling defense. His timing was uncanny. His nerve was strong. The intergenerational battle was a breathtaking triumph.
And then it wasn’t.
At 1-1 in the third set, all was lost. In a single painful moment the fantastic battle was stunted.
Just after Carlos hit a return of serve he bent over in pain. The Spaniard was hobbled. I feared for the worst and flashed back to last year, when Alexander Zverev destroyed his ankle during a tight semifinal battle against Rafa. Thankfully Carlos was only suffering awful cramps. He needed help. So by rule he lost the game.
In football, when the star quarterback suffers a devastating injury, you call on the backup and hope for the best. But there are no backups in tennis.
Historians thought of the cramping Michael Chang serving underhand against Ivan Lendl at the 1989 French Open. And there were the heart-wrenching cramps that Shuzo Matsuoka suffered at the 1995 US Open.
Alcaraz later offered an unsparing report: “I started to cramp – every part of my body, not only the legs. The arms, as well, [and] every part of the legs. Well, it was really tough for me to move in the third set. You know, my full body started to cramp.”
Eventually, Carlos returned and gamely played out the match. But he was a shadow of himself. He later said that he thought he had just a 1% chance of winning. He did slap forehands and scored occasional winners.
But the sublime mover was now immobile. The once imposing athlete was now fragile, stiff, flat-footed and confused. His explosiveness had vanished and his belief had imploded.
There was little question that Novak would reach his seventh French Open final. But there were plenty of other questions. Was Alcaraz, who’d had two days rest, feeling the heat and pressure of the moment? Coach Patrick Mouratoglou commented, “Even the greatest can feel the weight of history, and it can affect their game.”
Carlos concurred. He confided, “At the beginning of the third set, there was tension…[and] I started the match really nervous…If someone says that he goes on court with no nerves playing against Novak, he lies…Playing a semifinal of a Grand Slam, you have a lot of nerves, but even more…facing Novak.”
Tennis can be brutal. Nadal won last year, but he left Paris on crutches. A hefty part of tennis is taking the legs away from your foe. And, yes, Novak had to retire from the 2007 Wimbledon semifinal and the 2009 Australian Open quarterfinals. Today Novak ran Carlos to the far corners of Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Andy Roddick once famously told us, “First Novak takes your legs, then he takes your soul.” Eventually the great young athlete’s body rebelled and he was left with nothing.
And so were millions of fans, who were shocked when the match of the year became the anti-climax of the year.
Djokovic was a gracious victor after winning 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. He said what a great shame it was that Carlos had cramped. He had matured so fast, was the youngest No. 1 ever, and perhaps was feeling the pressure of being the favorite today. At the net, Nole embraced the Spaniard and told him he would have a great future.
Novak informed the press, “I just keep winning…a win is a win.” And he’s happy he’ll be playing on Sunday to try and beat Norwegian Casper Rudd to gain back-to-back Slams and a record-breaking 23 majors. He added, “I’ve been very fortunate, in that most of the matches in tournaments I’ve played in the last few years, there is history on the line. I like the feeling. It’s an incredible privilege to be able to make history in the sport that I truly love, and that has given me so much…If I win on Sunday, let’s talk about history.”
