Marion
Bartoli expressed her opinion on the differences in the seasons of Carlos
Alcaraz and
Novak Djokovic.
The 2013
Wimbledon champion recently spoke on the Match Points podcast by Tennis Majors
about the current rivalry between Djokovic and Alcaraz, placing the Serbian
above the Spanish player due to his outstanding performance in all four Grand
Slam events of the year:
“One has
won three Grand Slam titles this season & the other has won 1. One played 4
Grand Slam finals, the other one played 1. It's that simple… I think we need to
look more broadly at how everyone is handling the season. And so far, Novak is
doing a better job,” she said.
“That's not
to say things won't change, of course. It's obvious that Novak is more at the
end of his career than at the beginning. But I found the way he handled this
season, his mental strength and his ability to recover from everything
extraordinary. And I don't think many people can claim to have the same mental
toughness as him,” Bartoli added.
Djokovic
and Alcaraz have faced each other four times so far, with a tied head-to-head
record of 2-2. When considering their matchups this year alone, the 23-times
Grand Slam champion takes a 2-1 advantage, defeating Alcaraz in the semifinals
of the French Open and the final of the Cincinnati Open. On the other hand, the
young star won the Wimbledon final, where he claimed his second Grand Slam
title.
After
winning the US Open a few weeks ago, Djokovic decided to skip the Asian
tournaments and prepare for his upcoming challenges. As he recently detailed,
he plans to compete in the Masters 1000 Paris-Bercy, which begins on October
30, and then participate in the Nitto ATP Finals in November. The Serbian will
conclude his season at the Davis Cup Finals.
As for
Alcaraz, he traveled to Asia and is in the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 China
Open, where he will face Casper Ruud. He will also compete in the Masters 1000
Shanghai Open, where he is the top seed, and could potentially narrow the gap
with Djokovic in the race for the world No. 1 ranking.
