Carlos Alcaraz woke up, rolled over and checked his phone. He had a message from Novak Djokovic.
“All right, you have to pay me for the serve,” Djokovic had texted him.
The former world No.1 figured the current best player in the world had copied his serve and joked that he now wanted royalties.
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates during his clash with Tommy Paul.Credit: Eddie Jim
At the end of last season, Alcaraz started making tweaks to his serve off his own bat – or racquet, as it were – and not at the instigation of a coach.
He altered his set-up, hand position and swing, and unwittingly found himself becoming a serving Djokovic mini-me.
He might not have noticed the new similarity to Djokovic, but Djokovic did – and he wanted a cut.
After beating American Tommy Paul in straight sets 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 on Sunday, Alcaraz was asked on court if he had paid Djokovic for his serve yet.
“I have got the contract over there, but I haven’t seen him yet,” Alcaraz said.
“It was funny because I wasn’t aware it was similar to Novak’s serve, but I woke up and got this message from Novak: ‘All right, you have to pay me for the serve’.”
The difference in serve, he hopes, will also be the difference at this elusive grand slam. For a third successive year now Alcaraz has made the quarter-finals in Melbourne but it remains the one grand slam title he is yet to win.
Tommy Paul.Credit: Eddie Jim
Pending the outcome of the Alex de Minaur clash with Alexander Bublik on Sunday night, Alcaraz could face the hometown favourite in the quarter-final.
Alcaraz was authoritative in the key moments against the impressive Paul, who came out hard, breaking Alcaraz in his opening service game and pushing that first set into a tie-break.
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“He started pretty strong that first game on my serve. I thought I had played a good game, though, and I lost,” Alcaraz said.
It was the start of a marathon first set that stretched to 72 minutes, including a 14-minute hold-up to play during the tie-break for a medical emergency for a spectator in the stands.
Alcaraz always had time. On one critical point he sat at the net under a skied ball. He took his hand off the racquet, wiped his palm on his shorts, blew on his fingers to dry then and took hold of the racquet again and still had time to wait for the ball to land and smash it away.
Even he smiled at his mid-point sweat work. Not many players take their hand off their racquet and still win a point.
But hey, he is the world No.1, albeit one in debt to his predecessor.