Novak Djokovic has made claims that Carlos Alcaraz is now the leading force in men’s tennis look foolish by winning his 40th ATP 1000 title at the Paris Masters. The veteran Serb cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov to land his sixth tour title of the season and cement his position at the top of the world rankings.
Having won both the Australian and French Open championships, Djokovic’s hopes of completing a remarkable clean sweep of Grand Slams were ended by Alcaraz at Wimbledon when the 20-year-old Spaniard showed his undoubted talent to win a five-set thriller in SW19 that was supposed to signal the start of a new era in the men’s game.
Alacaraz’ sponsor Nike was keen to get in on the action after their client’s All England Club success, proclaiming that the sport had a new king. Nike wrote on Twitter, now X: “The Alcaraz Era is upon us.”
But Alcaraz has not won any more titles since his Wimbledon triumph and has dropped back to world No. 2 while Djokovic has retaken his more accustomed position.
Nike’s boast was revisited on social media following the Paris Masters by tennis enthusiast Olly Tennis, who reposted the statement from Nike and wrote: “I love Alcaraz, but this tweet from Nike was so dumb. Djokovic has won another Major and 2 more Masters 1000s since this.”
@Ovieroghene replied: “As a Djokovic fan, I can confirm we are enjoying Alcaraz era,” while @swiatekburner added: “I don’t think an Alcaraz era being here means the Novak era is over.”
Djokovic and Alcaraz have faced each other three times this season with the Serbian holding a 2-1 advantage. They first came head-to-head at Roland Garros in the French Open final, with Djokovic prevailing in straight sets 7-6(7-1), 6-3, 7-5. But it was a different story at Wimbledon as Alcaraz landed the second Grand Slam of his career following a five-set marathon that left the SW19 crowd hailing a new champion.
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Arguably their best match of the season arrived in the Cincinnati Masters final however, when Djokovic came from behind to win the three-set final 5-7, 7–6(9–7), 7–6(7–4).
The win set him up for a successful run at the US Open where he won a record 24th career Grand Slam title.
Alcaraz was dumped out of the Paris Masters in the Round of 32 by World No. 45 Roman Safiullin, proving that the Spaniard still has some way to go before he can match the title-winning consistency of his rival Djokovic.
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