Corretja believes rivalry with Alcaraz gives Djokovic 'extra motivation': "Their rivalry is great for tennis"

Former player Alex Corretja believes that the growing rivalry between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak is really good for tennis because the Serbian wants to compete with the youngster.

Carlos Alcaraz is a rising star in tennis while Novak Djokovic is still the present. He's far from being the past of tennis but he's staring at the future of tennis in Alcaraz. They played once so far and it was a brilliant match where Alcaraz managed to secure a huge win, one round after he defeated Rafael Nadal.

We'll surely get more matches like that in the future and Corretja believes it's great for tennis. Djokovic is motivated by competing against the youngsters according to Corretja:

"I think it is nice, once you are there at the top of the rankings, to have someone pushing you. That makes you improve all the time and that makes you learn. I think for him, it is something that is extra motivation because you need to know how to keep finding ways of improving your game."

He added:

"This (Djokovic vs Alcaraz) is great for tennis, and it is great for them because, at the end of the day, the reason why Rafa, Roger and Novak were so good was because they were in the same era, and they needed to improve."