Carlos Alcaraz will play his first match in more than one month on Saturday at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. The Spanish sensation will face Andrey Rublev in the semi-final in Abu Dhabi at 7 p.m. local time.
Alcaraz about Djokovic
During the press conference that precedes his campaign in the Middle East, Carlos Alcaraz made it very clear that he is extremely happy to have Novak Djokovic play on tour. He maintains that in order to be the legitimate world number one, he must beat the best.
“Tennis is better having the best players in the world, and for the fans as well it’s good to see a tournament with the best player. Talking for me, I want to see Novak play in every tournament. I always said that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best player in the world. I’m a lucky guy to have Djokovic on the tour.”
Some players, like Alexander Zverev, stated that Carlos Alcaraz is at the top of the rankings mainly because Novak Djokovic was not able to play many tournaments last year because of his vaccination status.
Carlos Alcaraz @MubadalaWTC today:
"I want to see Novak play in every tournament. I always said that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best player in the world. I’m a lucky guy to have Djokovic on the tour." pic.twitter.com/OsPPUQCwMl
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) December 16, 2022
Carlos Alcaraz in 2022
WLWWWWWWWW Ranked world no.1, Alcaraz played his last match on the 4th of November when he had to retire when playing against world no.11 Holger Rune in the quarter and the scoreline was 6-3 6-6 .
During this season Alcaraz has a 57-13 record. Carlos conquered 5 titles in 2022 in Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Barcelona, Madrid and U.S. Open. Alcaraz reached the final in Hamburg and Umag.
Novak Djokovic in 2022
WWWWWLWWLW Currently the world no.5, Djokovic played his last match on the 20th of November when he defeated world no.3 Casper Ruud 7-5 6-3 in the final in the Nitto ATP Finals to win his 91st career title.
Presently, during this year Novak has an overall 42-7 match record. The Serbian has won 5 titles in 2022 in Rome, Wimbledon, Tel Aviv, Astana and the Nitto ATP Finals. Djokovic reached the final in Belgrade and Paris.
Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic played each other only on 1 occasion. Their actual head to head record is 1-0 for Alcaraz. When they played, Carlos Alcaraz won 6-7(5) 7-5 7-6(5) in the semifinal in Madrid (Mutua Madrid Open) on the 7th of May 2022.
In the video below you can watch the highlights.
