Alcaraz-Djokovic: Cincinnati lived its dream ending with an air of revenge

The two best players in the world face off. The Cincinnati Masters 1000 will take place this Sunday (22:30 Spanish peninsular time) the dream final: Carlos Alcaraz against Novak Djokovic, a replay of the last Wimbledon final and the Roland Garros semifinals.

Both came to the big event with good feelings, although their paths were very different. While the Spaniard was forced to pull off an epic to win all his matches, three out of four to three sets and the last two coming back after losing the first set, The Serbian reached the final without losing a set and showed an inappropriate level for a player who has not played for a month.

Only in the semifinal against Alexander Zverev, Nole was asked (7-6 (5), 7-5). The tiebreaker was needed to settle the first set, won 7-5 by Djokovic after one hour and thirteen minutes without a break. In the second set, Djokovic got the break in the first game, but Zverev rallied from it in the tenth to level at 5-5.

However, the Serbian reacted quickly and achieved a ‘break’ in the following game which paved the way to the final. This will be the first of this tournament for Alcaraz, who will seek his seventh title of the year and his fifth Masters 1,000 crownafter Miami and Madrid 2022 and Indian Wells and Madrid 2023.

“Facing Alcaraz is the ultimate challenge for me today. This is our first hard court duel and I think it will be a great test for US Open 2023. He’s the best in the world right now, so it’s a big challenge for me and I’m looking forward to when I get out on the track.” declared the Serbian after his match against Zverev.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

For Djokovic this will be the eighth final on the clay of Cincinnati, with a negative balance of two wins for five losses. He won in 2018 and in 2020when the tournament moved to New York due to the coronavirus pandemic, while losing in the finals in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015.

Roger Federer denied him the title three times (2005, 2009 and 2015) and Andy Murray twice (2008 and 2011).

Alcaraz has a 2-1 advantage over the Serbian forwards. He defeated him in the semifinals of the Masters 1,000 in Madrid 6-7(5), 7-5 and 7-6(5) in 2022, when he was crowned champion.

This year, Djokovic wins Roland Garros semifinal 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 and 6-1before succumbing 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final.

And all this with the fight for number 1 in the background. Alcaraz’s victory over Hubert Hurkacz in the semifinals allowed him to tie for first place, although this Sunday Djokovic may be just one step away from the throne.

And this is, in case of victory, the Serbian will be only 20 points behind the Spanish, a minimum income that can be played without problems in the next US Open.

There Novak does not defend any point, as he has not been able to participate in the New York Grand Slam for two years due to his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid. So, everything you get in New York goes directly to your locker, a very different reality from Alcaraz.

The Murcian defended the crown achieved last year, and its equivalent of 2,000 points, so he can’t add to the US Open. Just by winning the title again he won’t wipe out the points.

If Djokovic wins in Cincinnati he will drop to 20 points and will only need to get past the first round at the US Open to defeat Alcaraz even if he revalidates the title. If he doesn’t, the Serbian will automatically be number 1 no matter what he does.

Hence the importance of the final this Sunday, because if Alcaraz wins, he will increase his lead to 820 pointsa wide margin that will allow him to face the US Open with more margin.