Novak Djokovic has expressed his surprise and disappointment about not facing Carlos Alcaraz in the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage after the Spaniard withdrew from the tournament.
Alcaraz was the defending champion heading into this year's US Open. However, he crashed out in a shock defeat to Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals of this year's New York major. Following this, the 20-year-old announced his withdrawal from the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage in Valencia, which take place between September 12-17.
He wasn't the only big name to pull out of the tournament, as several others who had deep runs at Flushing Meadows decided to take more time out to recover, including Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini, the latter of whom sustained an ankle injury at the Slam.
By losing to Medvedev in New York, Alcaraz just missed out on another epic clash with Djokovic in the final. In the last two months, the players have made history with two awe-inspiring matches.
The first was at Wimbledon, where Alcaraz defeated the seven-time champion of the grasscourt major in a five-set battle to take the second Grand Slam title of his young career. However, the Serb got his revenge at the Cincinnati Open in August, prevailing over Alcaraz in the longest ATP Masters 1000 best of three match in history.
In the final of the US Open, Djokovic went on to win the title with relative ease, meaning he now has an incredible 24 major titles to his name. Indeed, the 36-year-old appears to be on a roll and clearly wasn't too fatigued by his run in New York, as he revealed that he would still play as part of Team Serbia at the Davis Cup.
Djokovic has also expressed his surprise and sadness that he won't be playing against Alcaraz at the event, praising the young star's great ability and Spain's tennis tradition with Rafael Nadal.
"The truth is that I expected to play against Carlos here in Valencia, he is a player who I respect a lot, whenever I have measured him they have been very hard matches, he is an incredible person and player. First with Rafa [Rafael Nadal], now with Alcaraz, Spain has a great tradition in tennis," he said.
Nevertheless, he also added that he would be doing everything he could to beat Team Spain in their head-to-head at the tournament.
"But hey, I'm from Serbia and these days I'm going to do everything possible to beat Spain," he continued.
Both Serbia and Spain are part of Group C along with the Czech Republic and South Korea.
🇷🇸 Djokovic, speaking today, says he’s disappointed and surprised that Alcaraz won’t play the Davis Cup tie against Serbia: "The truth is that I expected to play against Carlos here in Valencia, he is a player who I respect a lot, whenever I have measured him they have been very…
