By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday August 20, 2023
Novak Djokovic braved the heat, saved a championship point and emerged as the oldest men's singles champion in Cincinnati history.
Photo Source: TTV
Photo Source: TTV
Sunday’s heat at the Western and Southern Open was intense. So was Carlos Alcaraz and his explosive, relentless game.
But Novak Djokovic, 36 and looking every bit of it for the first half of the match, took every punch the Spaniard threw at him and emerged as the oldest men’s singles champion in Cincinnati history, edging the World No.1 5-7, 7-6(7), 7-6(4).
Anybody who witnessed Djokovic wilting in the extreme heat during the first set and half of the contest would have never guessed the outcome, but to know Djokovic is to understand his remarkable ability to pick himself off the canvas and continue defying the odds.
He did it in dramatic fashion on Sunday, saving a championship point in the second set tiebreak after rallying from a break down earlier in the set, then locked horns in a titanic third-set tussle that left him shaking his head in awe at Alcaraz’s own defiance.
Three hours and 49 minutes after the final had begun, Djokovic was scratching his head and marvelling at the powers of his younger rival.
“You never give up man,” Djokovic told Alcaraz in a heartwarming moment during the post-matcj awards presentation. “I love that about you.”
Alcaraz, who saved a match point to defeat Hubert Hurkacz in a dramatic semifinal on Saturday, made Djokovic sweat it out in the third set as he saved four championship points across two heart-stopping games and pushed from 5-3 down to draw even.
The 20-year-old, who was bidding to become the youngest champion in Cincinnati since Boris Becker in 1985, would save four break points to hold for 6-5, but he couldn’t stave off Djokovic in the tiebreak, the Serbian converting his fifth match point and dropping to the court in delight and exhaustion when he finally clicked the win column.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” Djokovic said. “Definitely one of the most exciting matches I was a part of in any tournament – it did feel like a Grand Slam final, even more than that, to be honest.”
The victory is a testament to Djokovic’s inner strength. That he was able to fight off heat-related fatigue and blossom as the match unfolded, as he matched strokes with the indefatigable Spaniard in what could very well be a preview of this year’s US Open final, is yet another remarkable chapter in an ever growing body of work created by the 23-time major champion.
Djokovic, who won his record 39th Masters 1000 title and improved to 2-2 lifetime against Alcaraz, will enter New York as the No.2 seed, but he has done his part to prove that he has the game, and the energy, to go toe-to-toe with the fiery Spaniard on the hard courts.
After the contest he was full of praise for two-time Gran Slam champion Alcaraz, telling the Spaniard that what he has achieved in the last three years is truly remarkable.
"A lot of the players never manage to reach those heights in their entire careers - what you managed to do in the last two, three years is unbelievable,” he said of the man who became the youngest World No.1 in ATP history last September.
Alcaraz, who was in tears in his chair moments after the final and again during his speech, returned the favor.
"This match was really close. I learned a lot from a champion like you,” he said.
In the end there was very little between these two great talents at opposite edges of the age spectrum. The precocious Alcaraz has arrived as a premier force far ahead of what was expected to be his time; Djokovic has remained a dominant specimen long after many though he is superpowers would start to recede.
With one week until the start of the 2023 US Open, the excitement couldn’t be any more palpable.
“I’m hoping we can play in some weeks’ time in New York,” Djokovic told Alcaraz.
As are we…