Sports
Novak Djokovic beats Carlos Alcaraz at Australian Open in display of physical and tactical fortitude
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.
Novak Djokovic injured his left leg in the first set of the match, in the same game that Carlos Alcaraz seized the decisive break. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
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.
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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.
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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?
“We push each other to the limit,” he said. “I think we’ve played great points, great rallies. It was really tight in the third, the fourth set.
“I’m just lucky to live this experience. I’m 21 years old. From these matches, I’m getting so much experience about how to deal with everything. I’m not going to hide.
“I’ve done great things in tennis already, but playing against one of the best in the history of our sport, these kind of matches help me a lot in the future to be better.”
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(Top photo: Fred Lee / Getty Images)
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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Sports
Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush
Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.
“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.
Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.
On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.
The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.
Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.
Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.
(Lindsey Wasson / AP)
The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.
Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.
His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”
Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.
Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.
A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.
Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.
A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.
The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.
He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.
“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”
Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.
“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.
“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”
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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead.
“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights.
Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.
“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann.
One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”
Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”
Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.
After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.
In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post.
In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”
Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media.
Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.
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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death.
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