Bill Simons
NOLE PREVAILS IN THE BATTLE OF THE STAGES: Forget the Big Three of Roger, Rafa and Novak. Now it’s the Big Two: elder icon Novak Djokovic and the dazzling kid Carlos Alcaraz.
The two met on clay in this year’s French Open semifinal – a thriller until Alcaraz suffered cramps. Then on grass the Spaniard won the Wimbledon final in the most memorable five-set match in years. Today on hardcourts the two gave us just perhaps the most captivating three-set final in ATP Masters history.
Clearly the duo have a scorching rivalry, and today in scorching 90°-plus heat and debilitating humidity, Djokovic gained an early 4-2 lead. But Alcaraz counterpunched and soon had the 36-year-old reeling and gasping. As Carlos captured the first set 7-5, Nole wondered whether he had a heat stroke.
Even though Djokovic got permission to go to the locker room for an extended break after the first set, the Spaniard remained in ascendance, going up 4-2 in the second set. But as Carlos sought to gain a 5-3 lead, he blinked, donating four errors and allowing Nole back into the battle. Alcaraz fought to gain a championship point at 6-5 in the second set, but couldn’t convert.
Eventually Carlos netted a forehand and Nole took the second-set tiebreak 9-7 to even the match at a set apiece.
Novak clearly had caught a second wind. He moved Carlos to the corners and hit adept volley winners to gain an array of break points and go up 5-3 in the third set.
If the Wimbledon final was “the Battle of the Ages,” the Cincy final, which was the longest Masters final in history, was “The Battle of the Stages.” Djokovic sprints from the starting gate. Carlos pulverizes Nole, who’s on the ropes. Alcaraz self-destructs. Djokovic marches back.
The scintillating battle prompted Tennis Channel commentators Jim Courier and Jason Goodall to gush, “This is shot-making from the gods…What a serve! What a game! What a final!…You shouldn’t be able to play this level of tennis with this level of fatigue. Thank you, tennis gods…Tennis has been in good hands for 15 years and now we have another [15].”
The opportunistic Alcaraz hit key serve-and-volley winners and nifty drop shots. He hit a mind-boggling running forehand passing shot and a backhand winner that left the throng breathless. His defense amazed, his vision was clear, his creativity astounded. You don’t want to mess with his forehand. The man-child is a delight to watch.
Carlos charged back from his third-set deficit, saved 12 break points and overcame four championship points. Destiny seemed to be on his side.
But is there a more steely performer in sports than Djokovic? He battled through his fatigue, shook off his rival’s blows, and, when it really mattered, in the third-set tiebreak, he broke early, took advantage of Alcaraz’s cramping right hand, and, on his fifth championship point, watched in relief as an Alcaraz forehand return of serve flew wide.
The Serb, who is 7-0 in deciding set tiebreaks, prevailed 5–7, 7–6 (7), 7–6 (4) in 3:49, gaining his 95th career title (third behind Connors and Federer), his 39th ATP Masters title, and his third Western and Southern championship. Courier noted, “We are so lucky to have [Nole] in the sport – and someone like Alcaraz to extract that kind of performance from him.”
A sorrowful but teary-eyed Alcaraz told Novak that he learned a lot from the match and it was an honor to share the court with the Serb.
Novak replied by joking with Carlos, “boy you never give up man – Jesus Christ.” Djokovic, who hadn’t played in Cincinnati since 2019, told the crowd the match was “crazy, honestly…Definitely one of the toughest and exciting I’ve ever played…It felt like a Grand Slam final…It’s unbelievable…so many ups and downs, highs and lows, incredible points, poor games, heat strokes, coming back…I was never in doubt that I can deliver the ‘A’ game.”
Nole told Prakash Amritraj, “It’s a thrill to play against Carlos, yet it’s also suffering. It’s as good as it gets…We can both be proud of the fight.”
COCO’S SUMMER OF LOVE: The doubles duo of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula won the big three tourneys of the summer: Washington DC, the Canadian Open and Cincinnati.
Gauff, who came off a devastating first-round Wimbledon loss to Sofia Kenin, hired Spaniard Pere Riba and then Brad Gilbert, and in Washington she sprinted to the final without dropping a set. There she beat Maria Sakkari to win her first title on US soil.
But in Montreal Coco fell to her friend Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals. Pegula, the world No. 3, then downed No. 1 Iga Swiatek and proceeded to dismiss Liudmila Samsonova in the final in just 49 minutes, gaining her first ever Masters title. Then Gauff seemed to say, “If you can beat Swiatek, so can I!”
Never mind that in their seven previous matches, Coco had not won a set. But in Cincinnati the 19-year-old who is No. 7 in the world, tapped into her inner warrior to win the best match of her life. After she downed the Pole in the semis the increasingly aggressive and confident Floridian took out the stylish French Open finalist Karolina Muchova to claim the biggest tournament win of her career 6-3, 6-4 and become the youngest ever player to win Cincy.
The appealing teen, who has won 11 of her last 12 matches and 23 of her last 26 sets, then reflected on her still young career and sometimes very bumpy journey. She confided, “I spent a lot of nights at home crying, trying to figure it out.”
