PARIS – Novak Djokovic And Carlos Alcaráz are expected to play each other for the first time in more than a year when they meet the French Open semifinals.
The highly anticipated showdown is the first singles game on Friday at Court Philippe Chatrier.
It is the 45th Grand Slam semi-final for Djokovica 36-year-old from Serbia, and the second for Alcaraza 20-year-old from Spain.
Djokovic hopes to leave Roland Garros this year with his third Paris title and 23rd Major championship overall, which would break the tie with rival Rafael Nadal for the highest win by a man in tennis history.
The other men’s semifinals Next up is number 4 Casper Ruud, last year’s runner-up at Roland Garros, against number 22 Alexander Zverev. Neither has won a major trophy.
Alcaraz is No. 1 and Djokovic is No. 3. Each has lost just one set en route to the semifinals.
They have met only once on tour so far – on red clay at the Madrid Masters in May 2022. Alcaraz won a round after defeating Nadal and a round before beating Zverev to claim the title there.
It’s a clash worthy of a final, but it’ll be earlier in Paris as a random draw put them in the same half of the 128-player group.
How about this for unusual circumstances: both Djokovic and Alcaraz start a long Grand Slam winning streak. Djokovic has won 19 consecutive majors games, including titles at Wimbledon last July and the Australian Open in January.
However, there was also the US Open at that time, where Djokovic could not play because, as a foreigner who was not vaccinated against COVID-19, he was not allowed to enter the USA at the time. Alcaraz won this tournament and is therefore unbeaten in its last 12 Slam matches.
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