Carlos Alcaraz takes heart from lavish Novak Djokovic praise – ‘It’s great that I remind him of Rafael Nadal’

Carlos Alcaraz left it all on the court during his Cincinnati Open final defeat against Novak Djokovic, but he admits he is encouraged by the praise he received from one of the all-time tennis greats after the match.

Alcaraz and Djokovic met for the fourth time in professional tennis on Sunday and they delivered a classic with many feeling it was one of the greatest finals in modern times.

Djokovic saved a match point in the second set while his opponent saved four match points in the deciding set before the 23-time Grand Slam winner got the job done with a 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-4) win in three hours and 49 minutes to draw level at 2-2 in their head-to-head.

During the post-match press conference, Djokovic said the 20-year-old’s performance reminded him of 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal.

“The feeling that I have on the court reminds me a little bit of when I was facing Nadal when we were at our prime,” the Serbian said.

Alcaraz, meanwhile, feels being compared to Nadal is the ultimate compliment.

“Today was really, really difficult playing against Novak. He always put almost five, six, seven balls in [the court] every point. Fighting and running from one corner to other one every point is really tough to deal with almost the whole match,” the Spaniard said.

“I tried to stay there, to stay good physically, but it was tough. As I said, I left everything on court.

“For me, obviously it’s great that he knows that every time he’s going to play against me, it reminds him playing against Rafa or against the best ones because that means we are on a good path. I’m working very well, but today was tough to deal with everything that Novak put me through.”

Djokovic also described the match as one of the best he had been involved in, saying it took a lot of out of him mentally, physically and emotionally.

It was another feather in the 20-year-old’s cap, but he knows there is still hard work ahead.

“For me, it’s great to hear these things from Novak, [who] has played iconic matches, storied matches,” the two-time Grand Slam winner added.

“He said some matches against me were [some] of the toughest that he has played, it’s great. That means that my team and myself, we are doing the great work, we are in a good path. [Because of] matches like this one, we know that we have to still work in the same way that we are doing.”

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