Sports
Djokovic sets up gold-medal match with Alcaraz
PARIS — There they go again.
For the second time in three weeks, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will do battle for one of the biggest prizes in tennis.
When they meet in the Paris 2024 Olympics gold medal match at Roland Garros, on Sunday around 1 p.m. UK / 8 a.m. ET, they will open the latest chapter in their inter-generational duel.
The man atop the all-time tennis heap; the young buck ruling the current one.
Logic holds that there isn’t much time left for these sorts of battles, especially not at the Olympics. Djokovic is 37. As ageless as he can seem, it’s hard to see a gold-medal duel with Alcaraz happening in Los Angeles in four years’ time, though don’t put it past him.
Alcaraz, 21, seemingly has a decade or more of supremacy ahead of him, ready to be built on top of his domination of men’s tennis this spring and summer.
Alcaraz and Djokovic’s last meeting was the 2024 Wimbledon final (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
On Sunday they will do something that is becoming increasingly rare, even in the short time they have been facing each other at the top of the sport. They will play for a prize that neither of them has — and it isn’t a title at some random tour stop where both of them happen to be.
For Djokovic, the gold medal is the rare tennis bauble that he somehow doesn’t have. It’s all that’s missing from a mantle crowded with 24 Grand Slam titles, and a lonely bronze in singles from 2008 is all he has to show for his four previous appearances in the Olympic tournament.
He’s played professional tennis for 20 years. He’s played in 49 Grand Slam semifinals and won 37 of them. Until Friday evening against Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, he’d never won one at the Olympics. When he did, with a last, blasted forehand down the line, he collapsed on his back in the red clay.
He clutched his fists and fought to hold back his tears but lost that one, as the Serbian flags waved and the crowd chanted: “NOVAK, NOVAK!”
There is no way to overstate how much this tournament means to him, especially given that it looked like a pipe dream two months ago when he tore his meniscus on this same court and had to undergo an operation and a high-speed rehabilitation that both risked and saved his summer.
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For Alcaraz, it’s the next piece of hardware accumulation that will allow him to, as he put it last month at Wimbledon, “sit at that table” with Djokovic and the rest of the all-time greats. He has a chance to become one of three players to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympic tournament in the same year. Rafael Nadal and Steffi Graf are the others.
“Two legends from sport,” Alcaraz said. “I will try not to think of every stat, the things I could achieve.”
On Friday he played as though he already has a place setting at that table — or maybe even owned it — blowing through Felix Auger Aliassime 6-1, 6-1 with a frightening ferocity that he has recently acquired, especially in the latter stages of tournaments.
In bright sunshine and swelteringly humid air at Roland Garros on Friday, both sets followed a pattern to a tee, as if Alcaraz had scripted them. Lose a game while returning; win a game on serve. In the second set, the other way round. Then, spend five games pulling Auger-Aliassime all about the court, discombobulating his game plan until he’s throwing in new ideas like he has to do, but not having any of them work, getting more and more confused until he looks across the net and it’s 1-5 and it’s over.
Alcaraz has pushed his level higher and higher throughout the tournament (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)
He basically did this same thing to Auger-Aliassime, a deceptively excellent clay court player, on this same court back in the fourth round of the French Open in June. Auger-Aliassime is just 23, only a few years removed from being considered destined for big titles.
Now he is looking at years of afternoons like Friday coming at him. No fun.
“I knew I had to start the match well, really focusing on every point, trying to play with a lot of intensity,” Alcaraz said. “I didn’t think it was going to be like that.”
Djokovic played a different kind of all-time great tennis. He survived an increasingly dangerous opponent, one night after a few bad steps had him wondering if he’d done his knee again during his quarterfinal win over Stefanos Tsitsipas. “Very worried,” he had said, after suffering sharp pain that only subsided with the help of painkillers during that match.
He had the knee examined Friday but appeared to moving without hindrance for most of the night. On Thursday, he said he was going to “ pray to God for everything to be OK.” Those prayers were seemingly answered.
Djokovic and Musetti, who played in the semifinals at Wimbledon last month, played full-gas, big-boy tennis for most of two hours. Djokovic’s chest heaved after points, just as it did last time they met on this court, when they contested the latest finish in French Open history.
He had to take extra time to catch his breath and got a warning and a first-serve penalty for it, and then a code violation warning after an exchange with the chair umpire, Jaume Campistol.
Djokovic and Campistol during their showdown (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
This was what stressed out Djokovic looks like — the Djokovic who wants something desperately, something rare and unfamiliar, and wants it badly enough that his nerves begin to sap his energy. He yelled at his Serbian coaches and teammates repeatedly, imploring them to make more noise and give him the boost he needed.
Musetti matched him shot for shot until the final points of the first set, he hit an easy putaway right back and Djokovic, who paddled it back and somehow won the point. A sloppy drop shot from Musetti gave Djokovic the lead he so rarely relinquishes, and he didn’t start to do so Friday, winning 6-2 despite losing his serve twice in the second set. His head-to-head against Musetti, who always seems to test Djokovic, is now at 7-1.
That ascent to the top of the all-time tennis heap has accumulated a lot of scar tissue, creating a generation of players who, where Djokovic perceives a chain of victories, they see one single catastrophe, which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of their feet. No more was this in evidence than against Tsitsipas, who led an ailing Djokovic 4-0 and then 5-3, 40-0 in their second set, before withdrawing into himself and withering.
Djokovic knows that what is coming next is his own recent catastrophe, a test against the player who served him a chastening reminder of reality at the All England Club just weeks ago. Still, the Serbian is able to refer to Alcaraz as part of “the next, next, next, generation”, his half-sneering shorthand for how many have come before only to have him swat them away. He knows Alcaraz (as well Italian Jannik Sinner, who skipped the Olympics with tonsilitis) are different, playing at a level he has not been able to reach all year.
He knows he’s going to need to get there, somehow, and he knows that he needs to convince himself that it’s possible, just as he once convinced himself he could overtake Nadal and Roger Federer.
It’s the only way to get just about the only thing he does not have.
Additional reporting by James Hansen
(Daniela Porcelli/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
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The highly anticipated 30th WNBA season tipped off Friday with three games, including the expansion Toronto Tempo’s first-ever contest.
The action continued Saturday with a full slate, including Caitlin Clark’s return after an injury-riddled sophomore season.
Clark and the Indiana Fever hosted the Dallas Wings on Saturday afternoon in a matchup featuring the four most recent No. 1 overall picks. The Wings outlasted the Fever 107-104, but the game was defined by Azzi Fudd’s — the most recent top pick — underwhelming debut.
Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers react during the first half of the Fever’s season opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on May 9, 2026. (Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Fudd played 18 minutes off the bench, scoring three points — the lowest ever by a No. 1 overall pick in a WNBA debut.
Wings coach Jose Fernandez addressed Fudd’s performance after the game, encouraging the rookie to, “Keep doing what she’s doing, it’s her first year in the league. We got five really talented backcourt players.”
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In addition to Fudd, Dallas’ backcourt features last year’s top draft pick Paige Bueckers, last season’s No. 12 overall pick Aziaha James, four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale and starting guard Odyssey Sims.
Until Saturday, Kelsey Plum held the record for the lowest-scoring debut by a No. 1 pick. Selected first overall by the then-San Antonio Stars in 2017, she scored just four points in her debut. The Stars relocated to Las Vegas in 2018 and was subsequently rebranded as the Aces.
Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd warms up before the game against the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2026. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Despite the slow start to her first season in the league, Plum ended the year with All-Rookie team honors. In the years since, she’s been named to four All-Star teams and won two championships with the Aces.
The Wings’ decision to take Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick drew controversy, raising questions about whether Bueckers’ personal relationship with her influenced the selection. Late last month, Bueckers said last month it did not.
Azzi Fudd poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected first overall by the Dallas Wings during the 2026 WNBA Draft at The Shed in New York City on April 13, 2026. (Angelina Katsanis/Getty Images)
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“Azzi Fudd was the No. 1 draft pick because she earned it, and it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with who she is as a human being, who she is as a basketball player,” Bueckers said, according to ESPN.
Neither Bueckers nor Fudd has publicly updated their relationship status since the April draft.
“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers also said in April. “And what we choose to share is completely up to us.”
Next up, the Wings play their home opener on Tuesday when they host the Atlanta Dream.
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The Lakers are one playoff defeat from their season being over and from the conversation turning to LeBron James’ future.
They are in a hole no team has climbed out of in the history of the NBA, the Lakers’ 131-108 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 putting L.A. down 3-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.
James and his teammates gave a gallant effort Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, but the defending champion proved to be more than the Lakers could handle.
James finished his night with 19 points on seven-for-19 shooting, eight assists and six rebounds. Rui Hachimura had 21 points and Austin Reaves finished with 17 points and nine assists.
Even so, the Lakers have now lost all three games by double digits.
And the Lakers are fully aware that no NBA team has successfully come back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs, with those teams holding a 161-0 record. Only four teams have forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0, all of which ultimately lost the series, including the Boston Celtics in 2023.
Lakers forward LeBron James shows frustration as Thunder center Chet Holmgren slam dunks during Game 3 on Saturday night.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Game 4 is Monday night, when the Lakers will try to stave off elimination and a night that will determine how the conversations go with James if they lose.
James has been frequently asked this season about retirement, but he has not given any indication of what the future holds for him.
He’s 41 years old and playing in an NBA-record 23rd season.
James is in the final year of his contract that pays him $52 million, making him a free agent this offseason. He can retire, join another team or perhaps return to the Lakers next season.
That will be the conversation if the Lakers can’t win Game 4.
They will see the same Thunder team that had seven players score in double figures, led by Ajay Mitchell’s 24 points and 10 assists and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 23 points and nine assists.
The Lakers went down 13 in the third quarter and had to play catchup the rest of the way. They never did, going down by 112-94 with 6 minutes and 12 seconds left, forcing Lakers coach JJ Redick to call a timeout.
The deficit just kept growing, topping out at 27 points in the fourth.
They were outscored 33-20 in the third quarter. The Lakers didn’t take care of the basketball in the third, turning it over six times, and they didn’t play good defense, allowing the Thunder to shoot 59.1% from the field and 55.6 percent from three-point range,
The Lakers did not give an inch to the Thunder in the first half, even when they fell behind by 10 points.
They just kept grinding until they led 59-57 at halftime.
Hachimura had 16 points in the first half, continuing his hot three-point shooting by making all four of his threes. Luke Kennard came off the bench to give the Lakers 13 points, shooting five for six from the field and three for four from three-point range.
The Lakers kept the pressure defense on Gilgeous-Alexander. Though he had 14 points in the first half, he shot only four for 14 from the field and one for five from three-point range.
The Lakers shot 55% from three-point range in the first half, which went a long way in helping them.
The Lakers lost the first two games by identical margins of 18 points and each loss was magnified because Gilgeous-Alexander was kept under wraps for the most part by L.A.’s defense.
When Gilgeous-Alexander picked up his fourth foul with 10:34 left in the third quarter of Game 2 and went to the bench, the Thunder turned a five-point lead into a 13-point advantage at the end of the quarter.
So, when he wasn’t on the court, the Lakers failed to take advantage.
“Well, you know, again, I’ll repeat what I said after the game: we’ve got to be better in the non-Shai minutes,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Role players like Mitchell and Jared McCain hurt the Lakers in the second game. Chet Holmgren also was hard to deal with.
“Mitchell and McCain have hurt us in those non-Shai minutes, and then Chet [Holmgren] has hurt us the whole game,” Redick said. “I think you’ve got to be willing to live with something. Shai playing one-on-one, thus far in the series, we haven’t been willing to live with, so you’re going to be in rotation. That can lead to smalls on bigs at the hole, and the offensive rebounding from Chet has really hurt us.”
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In 2025, Alex Palou kicked off the Month of May with a Sonsio Grand Prix win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Based on the odds, it’s likely that Palou will find himself in Winner’s Circle again this Saturday when INDYCAR goes back to IMS on May 9 (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
Considering Palou has already captured the checkered flag three times this season, are there any other drivers whose odds are worth a wager?
Here are the latest lines at DraftKings Sportsbook as of May 9.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
Sonsio Grand Prix 2026
Àlex Palou: 5/18 (bet $10 to win $12.78 total)
Kyle Kirkwood: 5/1 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Pato O’Ward: 12/1 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
David Malukas: 14/1 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Josef Newgarden: 16/1 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Scott McLaughlin: 20/1 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Christian Lundgaard: 30/1 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Scott Dixon: 40/1 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Will Power: 60/1 (bet $10 to win $610 total)
Felix Rosenqvist: 80/1 (bet $10 to win $810 total)
Alexander Rossi: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Marcus Ericsson: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Marcus Armstrong: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Christian Rasmussen: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Graham Rahal: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Louis Foster: 300/1 (bet $10 to win $3,010 total)
Dennis Hauger: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Romain Grosjean: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Santino Ferrucci: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Rinus Veekay: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Kyffin Simpson: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Caio Collet: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Sting Ray Robb: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Nolan Siegel: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Mick Schumacher: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Here’s what to know about the oddsboard:
Heavy Favorite: It doesn’t look like Alex Palou’s dominance will be slowing down anytime soon. As noted above, he’s already won three of the five races since the INDYCAR season started in March. With 186 laps led, Palou sits first in the standings and has the shortest odds to win the title again. Last season, he started from the pole and led 29 laps before winning the race.
Long Shot to Watch: While his odds of 150/1 to win at IMS are much longer than Palou’s, Graham Rahal is one to watch. At this race in 2025, he started second and led 49 laps before finishing sixth. He finished second at this course in 2015, 2020 and 2023. He’s currently 10th in the INDYCAR standings, with one top five and three top 10s.
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