No. 2 Match of '23: Novak Djokovic eclipses Alcaraz in most brutal circus act imaginable

Tennis Channel will re-air this match on December 13 at 7 P.M. ET.

From the stadium at Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, you can look across Interstate 71 and see an amusement park. All day, roller coasters rise to towering heights, before crashing back to earth, as their passengers scream in panic and delight. By the final Sunday evening of this year’s Western & Southern Open, the park was closed and motionless. The screams were happening on the other side of the highway.

That’s where Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz were coming to the end of the most brutal circus act imaginable. A two-man, three hour and 49 minute war in 90-degree heat. Thousands of fans chanted “No-lay!” for Djokovic, who was playing in the U.S. for the first time since 2019. Thousands countered with chants of “Vamos Carlos!” By the time they reached a third-set tiebreaker, after 8:00 P.M., the chants had blurred into one titanic, incomprehensible roar.

“Ups and downs, highs and lows, incredible points, poor games, heat strokes,” Djokovic said afterward, in awe of what he had lived through.

Yet for the first 90 minutes, the match looked like a bust rather than a classic. The heat took an early toll on Djokovic, who squandered a 4-2 lead in the first and trudged off for a prolonged bathroom break after losing it 7-5. This time the man-in-the-mirror talk didn’t help. In the second set, he sat down heavily on a changeover, wrapped his head in an ice towel, and took a pill.

But this wiliest of wily veterans managed to use the only thing he had left—his serve. Down a set and 2-4, he manufactured a hold out of nothing. It was enough to stay in touch on the scoreboard, and enough to make Alcaraz nervous. At 4-3, Alcaraz opened the door with four wild errors.

From there, the match began to simmer, and the rallies lengthened. Djokovic rejoined the battle, forced a tiebreaker, and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Alcaraz bounced back and reached match point at 6-5; Djokovic saved it with a strong serve and forehand. Finally, Djokovic had set point. Through a tug-of-war rally, the tension rose with each swing, until Alcaraz hit a cannon-like forehand into the net. The stadium exploded.

Everything reached full boil in the third. Alcaraz knocked Djokovic back with rifle shot forehands, and sent him scrambling forward with drop shots. Djokovic moved father behind the baseline, and drove his ground strokes from corner to corner. Both guys shifted smoothly from full-blooded power to delicate touch and back again.

At 3-3, Djokovic broke Alcaraz’s serve on his fifth break point. At 5-3, he reached match point twice, but this time it was Alcaraz’s turn to stay alive against the odds. On his second match point, Djokovic angled a volley that looked as if it would win him the title. But Alcaraz got there in time to thread a perfect passing shot into the corner. Now the stadium exploded for him. A game later, serving at 5-4, Djokovic had another match point, and Alcaraz hit another jaw-dropping, explosion-inspiring forehand winner, on his way to breaking serve.

If any final deserved a third-set tiebreaker, it was this one. Again Djokovic jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Again, he couldn’t shake Alcaraz, who leveled it at 3-3 with a beautiful drop volley.

At 4-4, after 260 points, they arrived at the one that decided it. Alcaraz reached back and fired a 130-m.p.h. serve; Djokovic met it squarely with his two-handed backhand and sent it back nearly as hard. With that shot, the momentum swung permanently in his direction. Djokovic won that point, and the next two to complete an unlikely victory.

When it was over, Djokovic lay on his back in disbelief at his win. Alcaraz stared down at the court, in disbelief at his defeat.

“Each point is a hustle. Each point is a battle,” Djokovic said. “You’ve got to basically earn every single point, every single shot, regardless of the conditions.”

Their Wimbledon final was more historic, but their Western & Southern Open final was more telling. Instead of the up-and-comer seizing No. 1, it was the aging legend who seized it back and won the US Open. Through both epics, most of us were happy just to ride their two-man roller coaster with them—and let out a few screams of panic and delight along the way.