Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz faces the last big battle of the year at the US Open against Novak Djokovic, the reigning champion, and Jannik Sinner, the protagonist of a huge scandal over the double positive test of which he was acquitted.
Alcaraz and Sinner, the young bosses of the circuit, have shared victories in the previous three Grand Slam tournaments of the season, but the insatiable Djokovic will arrive in New York on Monday re-energized by his victory at the Paris Olympics earlier this month.
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“These kinds of rivalries that I have with Jannik and Carlos are the kind of matchups that still give me that pleasure of competition and motivate me to really push myself to perfect the game,” Djokovic said.
At 37, the Serbian star is still determined to extend his historic list of achievements and break the current tie with Margaret Court to reach an absolute record of 25 Grand Slam crowns.
The latest of these successes for Djokovic came at the last edition in New York, where he needs to defend his status as champion to avoid ending his first year without major titles since 2017.
To do so, Djokovic will try to exploit the confidence that came from beating Alcaraz in the fight for his first gold at the Paris Games.
For the Spaniard, however, the US Open could serve to make up for that huge Olympic disappointment and to crown 2024 as the best year of his brilliant career.
With her successes at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the jewel of El Palmar is aiming for a third consecutive major title at the age of 21. The opportunity also presents itself in New York, a very special stage after she opened her showcase of four Grand Slams there in 2022.
Alcaraz hopes to recapture the magic of his memorable New York nights and forget the disappointments of Paris, where he left without a medal in the doubles with Rafael Nadal and without the individual gold.
A few days later he was eliminated from his debut at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 and for the first time, he was seen smashing a racket on the court in rage.
“I want to win every tournament I go to and the US Open is a very special tournament for me. I really want to win, but not because of what happened in Cincinnati, that’s already out of my mind,” said Alcaraz, who withdrew from training on Saturday due to a sprained ankle, from which he hoped to fully recover for his debut.
Alcaraz would only meet Djokovic if they both reach the final, but before that, he could face an explosive semi-final against his great generational rival, Jannik Sinner.
Of the three favorites, the Italian is the one who has had the best preparation on hard courts, including a victory in Cincinnati last week.
Sinner, however, is in the spotlight in New York for non-sporting reasons, after it was revealed this week that he had failed two anti-doping tests in March for which he has been exonerated.
The Australian Open winner claimed that the small amounts of clostebol, an anabolic steroid derived from testosterone, were detected by his physiotherapist, who used an over-the-counter spray to treat a cut on his finger and contaminated the tennis player when massaging him.
The case was not made public until last Tuesday when the results of an investigation were announced which determined that Sinner “did not commit any fault or negligence.”
“Obviously it’s a relief,” the Italian said on Friday. “In my mind, I know I have not done anything wrong.”
The scandal, however, has sparked outrage among some of his colleagues, who have pointed to possible preferential treatment for the world number one.
Beyond the current ‘Big 3’, other figures such as the German Alexander Zverev and the Russian Daniil Medvedev will also fight to emerge victorious from the final on September 8.
