Relive how Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open quarterfinal

MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open quarterfinals at Melbourne Park on Tuesday night.

The No. 7 seed prevailed over the No. 3 seed in a fever-dream of an encounter, defined by a Djokovic injury, his tactical shift as it healed, and Alcaraz’s endless and ultimately fruitless search for a spark.

After three hours and 37 minutes, Djokovic moves on to the semifinals, where he will play No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev.

The Athletic’s tennis writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the match against Alcaraz and what it means for the tournament, and for tennis.

A ninth game of Alcaraz genius and Djokovic injury

Alcaraz had started the match looking nervous, and struggling to find his range. He was making errors on the first shot after both his first and second serves, and when Djokovic held serve for 4-3, it felt like he just needed to raise his intensity to steal the first set.

Instead, Alcaraz held for 4-4 before Djokovic suffered a triple whammy in the ninth game. Having chased down a drop shot to go up 15-0, he appeared to hurt himself, wincing and moving gingerly afterwards. Then the thing happened that every Alcaraz opponent dreads: he hit a highlight-reel shot. After an outrageous forehand pass up the line, the Spaniard cupped his hand to his ear and suddenly looked visibly lighter. The third blow felt inevitable for Djokovic, and sure enough a wide forehand conceded the break of serve that was coming and gave Alcaraz the chance to serve out the set.

Djokovic was forced to leave the court for a medical timeout; a couple of minutes after returning, he was a set down. In what felt like the blink of an eye, he was suddenly having to play catchup against a player who had only lost one Grand Slam match from a set up. And that was at the Australian Open four years ago, in what was his first-ever major.

GO DEEPER

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Matt Futterman, Charlie Eccleshare, James Hansen

Djokovic plays Alcaraz tennis, against Alcaraz

There wasn’t any chance that Djokovic was going to go away after picking up that injury. He came out for the second set a completely different player than the one who started the match.

In the first set, he was all about conservatism, turning points into physical contests and allowing Alcaraz to make errors, as he did in the first 12 games of both sets in their gold medal match at the Paris Olympics back in August.

That was no longer a possibility once he was playing with an injury. So Djokovic morphed into a first-strike player, just as he did in the tiebreaks of that Olympic final. He went hunting for every serve, ripping from the baseline at his first chance, even serving and sneaking into the net whenever he could to finish the point quickly. Points soon started ending after three or four shots.

Djokovic turned Alcaraz’s own style against him to win the second set. (Martin Keep / AFP via Getty Images)

Facing his own gifts being turned against him, Alcaraz was caught off-guard and lost his serve in the second game of the second set, as Djokovic whaled away on two forehand returns to get a break point, then won the game on the next one. After that, it became a test of whether this strategy could keep Djokovic in the match long enough to draw even, which would give him time for some combination of adrenaline and medication to kick in. Playing a hyper-aggressive brand of tennis for three sets would be nigh impossible, especially against the master of the art.

It worked even better than he could have hoped. Not only did he steal the set he usually loses while buying time, but when the pain in his leg began to ease, he was able to catch Alcaraz off-guard and keep him guessing about which Djokovic he was going to be facing from one point to the next.

GO DEEPER

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are redrawing the tennis court

Matt Futterman

How two players used to playing with house money dealt with being the gambler

At the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin, The Athletic watched a match with eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi. When analyzing the encounter unfolding in front of him, Agassi kept returning to the idea that tennis players are always seeking to keep the odds of winning in their favor. The best players become like the house at a casino, and turn their opponents into gamblers who start with things stacked against them.

Throughout his career, Djokovic has been the ultimate in applying this logic, the epitome of ‘the house always wins’. His opponents might hit the flashier shots, but ultimately they end up losing the match, because whatever they are doing proves unsustainable.

Against Alcaraz, at this tournament and previously in last year’s Wimbledon final, it’s been a surreal experience to see Djokovic thrust into the gambler role, desperately hoping his number might come up. Injuries have played a part in this on both occasions, but it’s also a reality of his now being 37 years old: not everything can be played on your terms.

Alcaraz struggled to play on his terms after the fourth set. (Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)

What made the dynamic more interesting was that Alcaraz too was having to alter the way he normally becomes the house. His instinct is to be the protagonist and get on the front foot, even though he is also a great defender. He trusts that his brilliance will be enough to ultimately overwhelm his opponent, because it almost always is.

Djokovic’s approach Tuesday took him out of his comfort zone, and in the second set he appeared unsure as to what his best route to victory was. He was celebrating hanging in points and drawing errors, rather than whipping up the crowd after hitting a winner that had got them off their feet.

His head looked scrambled and, having been dicing with danger in several service games, Alcaraz was broken to love and Djokovic levelled the match.

By the start of the third set, Djokovic was moving more freely, which gave him the option to play both sides of the equation: house and gambler. He could drag Alcaraz into rallies and bait him into coughing up a spinny shorter ball, or blast off early. This noticeably flummoxed Alcaraz, who seemed confused about his route to victory. He never entered full highlight-reel mode; his serve, with a new, more fluid motion, couldn’t get him cheap points as it did earlier in the tournament.

By allaying his instincts and playing more conservatively, he became the gambler, as so many of Djokovic’s opponents have fooled themselves into doing in the past. This was different — Alcaraz was, at times, playing three different versions of Djokovic at once — but he couldn’t reverse the trend.

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Charlie Eccleshare

Alcaraz’s search for a spark

All night long, it seemed like Alcaraz was a spark away from finding himself. Especially in the third set, when he was behind from the start and digging to come back. He went a break down, but got back on serve in the seventh game.

This was it… wasn’t it?

It was more like the opposite of that.

Alcaraz then committed three successive errors, on a volley, a forehand and a backhand. Djokovic, sensing his opponent had zero shot tolerance, went to work. He sucked Alcaraz into a 22-shot rally, then finished it with a looping forehand winner into the Spaniard’s backhand corner, not dissimilar to the one Alexei Popyrin hit against Djokovic at the U.S. Open last summer to send the crowd on Arthur Ashe into raptures and put the Serbian on notice that he was going home.

Alcaraz was frequently frustrated by tiny margins of error that accumulated throughout. (Hannah Peters / Getty Images)

After nearly two hours of deadening the stadium to keep the vibes low and Alcaraz disengaged, he put his hand to his ear and revved up the noise.

Then Djokovic fell 0-30 down as he served for the set. Could this be the Alcaraz spark? Nope. Two more errors from him drew Djokovic even. Time to test the shot tolerance again. A 17-shot rally this time, ending with Alcaraz whacking a running forehand into the net.

Rattled, and a point away from going down two sets to one, Alcaraz let Djokovic twist him this way and that and even baulked on an easy overhead before missing a backhand volley that he shouldn’t have had to hit.

Two games, 10 points, about eight minutes of play.

Script flipped.

Matt Futterman, Charlie Eccleshare, James Hansen

The 33-shot footnote in tennis history

In what was a weird match in so many ways, there was at least an exciting finale.

Alcaraz seemed to belatedly realize his only route back into this quarterfinal was to get the atmosphere going. He had searched for that spark all night, and finally got the chance in the fourth set.

When he won a 33-shot rally to save a break point that would have left him 5-2 down and out of the match, the Rod Laver Arena finally fizzed with energy. Djokovic raged, well aware of how significant the moment could be, with both players bent double at the side of the court. Alcaraz was smiling and laughing. Djokovic was fuming.

It felt like the turning point that Alcaraz has shown the tennis world so many times in his career, when he creates a highlight and then rolls downhill. Suddenly he was grinning again, sprinting around the court, almost enjoying himself.

When he held two break points in the next game, the comeback very briefly felt like it might be on.

But back came Djokovic, fending them both off before holding serve. Two games later, he served out the match to render that 33-shot rally ultimately irrelevant.

Charlie Eccleshare

What did Djokovic say after the match?

“I just wish that this match was the final,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “One of the most epic matches I’ve played on this court — on any court.”

“When the medications start to release, I’ll see what the reality is tomorrow morning. Right now. I’ll just try to be in the moment and enjoy this victory,” he said of his injury.

What did Alcaraz say after the match?

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(Top photo: Fred Lee / Getty Images)

Former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson left the team to take the Chicago Bears’ head coaching job Monday.

Super Bowl champion Lomas Brown talked about what Lions fans are going through losing their top coordinator after a crushing playoff loss during a recent appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.”

“I know it’s another body blow. You know that old game, body blow, body blow. … That was a big one yesterday,” Brown said. “All of them on talk radio, that was the subject yesterday, Ben Johnson leaving. Oh my god, you got so many fans upset at Ben about taking the Chicago job. I think it’s more, not him leaving, but more of the job that he is accepting because of how bitter rivals we are with Chicago.

“Now, we got to face him twice a year. That just made the division even harder with Ben Johnson going in there. And a lot of sentiment before he took the job was that Ben wouldn’t take that job because he knew he would have to go up against his good friend Dan Campbell twice a year. But he took it. A lot of people not happy with it around here.”

The No. 1-seeded Lions were upset by the No. 6-seeded Washington Commanders, 45-31, Saturday.

Brown said losing Johnson, especially to a division rival, and potentially other top assistants make the loss to the Commanders hurt that much more. 

LIONS’ DAN CAMPBELL CONFIDENT TEAM’S SUPER BOWL WINDOW REMAINS OPEN AFTER DISASTROUS LOSS TO COMMANDERS

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson watches a play against the Chicago Bears during the first half at Soldier Field in Chicago Dec. 22, 2024. (Imagn)

“A lot of people not happy with it around here, and I think that it’s, again, I just think a lot of that’s from the results of the game, and just everything that’s going on the last few days around here. It’s culminating with Ben Johnson taking the job and, d—, we’re going to lose other assistants,” Brown said. 

“I mean Aaron Glenn, you talk about maybe (offensive line coach) Hank Fraley. It’s other assistants that we’re going to lose off this team. That’s why this was the year for us to get it done.”

Glenn was scheduled to interview with the New York Jets for the second time for their head coaching position Tuesday, according to NFL Network. 

Tuesday’s interview will be the first in-person meeting between the Jets and Glenn. 

Lions legend Lomas Brown speaks during a Ring of Honor induction ceremony at halftime of a game between Detroit Lions and Las Vegas Raiders at Ford Field in Detroit Oct. 30, 2023. (Imagn)

Fraley is being interviewed for the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator position Tuesday, according to ESPN. It will be Fraley’s second interview with the team and their first in-person interview. 

Brown spent 18 seasons in the NFL and was with the Lions for 11 of them. Brown was a star left tackle and made the Pro Bowl seven consecutive seasons from 1990-1996. 

Brown won a Super Bowl in his final season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002. 

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Two days after the Lakers were saying it almost never would be easy, almost never came to town.

The Washington Wizards, who have won a league-low six times, were the cure for the Lakers after a loss Sunday to the Clippers exposed a number of their weaknesses. The postgame morale was low, LeBron James and JJ Redick openly discussing how their roster wouldn’t be able to organically improve an already narrow margin for error.

But with the midway point of the season here Tuesday, the Lakers played the one team in the NBA bad enough to make anyone — even the Lakers — feel like they’ve got it figured out.

The Lakers did the right things consistently over four quarters, barely being threatened before winning 111-88 in a game they desperately had to have before hosting Boston on Thursday night.

“It just starts with a very professional approach from our team,” Redick said. “That was one of our more complete games, regardless of what time of season it was or who the opponent was. Like, we just, we had a really professional approach.”

The Wizards (6-36), in the early stages of a rebuild with eyes on the top of the NBA draft, haven’t won since Jan. 1. Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole are their best offensive options and backup center Jonas Valanciunas and forward Corey Kispert their only other veterans, Washington fully committed to the future.

Compared to the Lakers (23-18), whose eyes are squarely on the present, that made Tuesday predictably one-sided — though the Lakers still needed to execute.

Anthony Davis had 29 points and 16 rebounds while bullying rookie Alex Sarr. James, fresh from watching his beloved Ohio State win the college football national championship Monday in Atlanta, had his ninth triple-double of the season with 21 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Austin Reaves, despite a four-for-15 shooting night, still finished with 16 points and eight assists, and Dorian Finney-Smith had 16 points off the bench in just 22 minutes.

The Lakers did it by attacking the paint and finding the open player, the team scoring on more than a handful of lobs.

“It’s… just being ready to make the passes on time, on target,” James said. “And when we do that, we look pretty good.”

The biggest highlight came when Reaves found James for a lob off an offensive rebound, with the 40-year-old Lakers star dunking on Valanciunas.

“I got hype. Screaming so loud, I almost passed out,” Davis said. “I mean, it wasn’t one of his best ones, but I’ve seen better. But it was a good one.”

The Lakers held Washington to 35.8% shooting from the field and 25.6% from three and limited the Wizards to 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“We went out, we had a game plan, we executed that,” James said. “I thought defensively, we were great. We were in tune with what they wanted to do, what they tried to do. And offensively, we shared the ball, limited our turnovers. We were really good.”