Carlos Alcaraz admits his father has been filming Novak Djokovic’s Wimbledon training sessions
WIMBLEDON — Carlos Alcaraz says his father has been filming Novak Djokovic’s training sessions ahead of a potential showdown between the pair in Sunday’s Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz beat fellow 20-year-old Holger Rune in straight sets on Wednesday to book his place in the semi-finals, where he will face Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the Spaniard’s third grand slam semi-final in the space of 10 months.
His most recent last-four match came against Djokovic in the French Open, where they contested two thrilling sets before Alcaraz was gripped by cramps which ended the match as a contest.
But reports in the Serbian media alleged that Alcaraz’s father Carlos Sr had been taking footage of Djokovic’s practice sessions were confirmed by the world No 1 on Wednesday evening.
“My father is a huge fan of tennis,” Alcaraz said.
“He doesn’t only watch my matches. I think he get into the club at 11am, get out at 10 p.m., watching matches, watching practice from everyone.
“Be able to watch Djokovic in real life, yeah, probably it is true he’s [sic] film the sessions.”
But Alcaraz denied that it would give him an edge if he were to play Djokovic in the final.
“I have a lot of videos from Djokovic on every platform. I think it’s not an advantage for me,” Alcaraz added.
Alcaraz vs Rune had been billed as one of the matches of the tournament, the first time ever that two men under 21 had met in a grand slam quarter-final.
They had played doubles together at the age of 13 and met at the Next Gen Finals two years ago. But this was by far the biggest meeting of their careers so far.
“I think that we have what it takes to play many more battles. He also told me after the match that we’ll play many times,” Rune said.
“I hope we can continue on this level for many years.”
But Rune will hope he arrives at their next meeting in better shape.
“This morning I didn’t feel very good when I woke up,” Rune added.
“But I had to do everything I could to feel better for the match, but didn’t have the same energy as I normally have when I play. Yeah, I tried. I tried everything I could.
“Sometimes when you play in many tournaments, many matches, you start to feel it also. Actually in Paris last year, I also felt it. But there it went well. I just think it’s a part of it. It’s normal as humans.”
It is the curse of youth in a sport so dependent on endurance and longevity, as Alcaraz found out to his cost at Roland Garros, although he said at the time that tension rather than exhaustion had played the most significant role in his issues in Paris.
And he admitted that he had been nervous once again going into his clash with Rune.
“It’s Holger and a little bit of playing quarterfinal of a grand slam,” Alcaraz said.
“But for me, it’s not easy to play against someone that I’ve played so many times. When we were younger, we grew up together, same age. For me is not really easy to play against.”
