Courtesy: Google
Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, has set up a mouthwatering quarter-final clash against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open after getting the better of Jiri Lehecka from Czechia in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(7-4) at the Rod Laver Arena in the fourth round. In just a couple of days time, Djokovic will be taking on Alcaraz at the Melbourne Park after the latter’s British opponent Jack Draper pulled out of their fourth round match earlier today.
In the last few big meetings on the ATP Tour between these two players, with a massive age difference of 16 years, Carlos Alcaraz has defeated veteran Novak Djokovic in the previous two finals at Wimbledon. Although, Djokovic got one up on rising sensation Alcaraz during the Paris Olympics 2024 men’s singles final, winning the gold medal at the games for the first-time in his illustrious career for Serbia, and he ended up calling it the “biggest sporting achievement” of his life.
Novak Djokovic was booed by the crowd at Rod Laver Arena during Jiri Lehecka
During the third set against Jiri Lehecka at the Rod Laver Arena, Novak Djokovic was booed by the crowd as his opponent came quite close to taking the match to the fourth set. But after Djokovic took the third set tie-breaker, to win the set and the match, he didn’t take much time to storm out of the arena after saying, “Thank you very much for being here tonight. I appreciate your support and I will see you in the next round.”
Moreover, in the pursuit of the 25th Grand Slam title, Novak Djokovic potentially couldn’t have got a tougher opponent than Carlos Alcaraz, especially with the head-to-head record of 4-3 against him being marginally better. The Serbian tennis star wasn’t able to win any men’s singles Grand Slam in the year 2024, which was his first such barren run since 2017.
One of the other quarter-finals in the Australian Open is going to be between Alexander Zverev of Germany and Tommy Paul from the USA.
