{"id":448293,"date":"2026-02-02T02:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/448293\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T02:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:07:07","slug":"already-a-legend-djokovics-praise-for-australian-open-champion-alcaraz-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/448293\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Already a legend\u2019: Djokovic\u2019s praise for Australian Open champion Alcaraz | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic called Carlos Alcaraz a tennis legend at the age of 22 after the Spaniard became the youngest male player in history to complete the career grand slam by defeating Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 in the Australian Open<\/a> final.<\/p>\n

The world No 1 had entered this tournament seeking to complete his collection of grand slam titles after previously winning each of the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open twice. He played a mature match against Djokovic, the fourth seed, maintaining his composure after a blistering opening set from the Serbian to win in four sets<\/a>. Alcaraz is also the youngest man in the open era to win seven grand slam titles.<\/p>\n

This was a historic match on both sides of the net. Djokovic, who reached the final after a spectacular five-set win over Jannik Sinner<\/a>, the second seed and two-time defending champion, had been attempting to become the oldest grand slam champion in the open era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results are a testament to his already stellar career,\u201d said Djokovic. \u201cI can\u2019t think of any other superlatives about him. He deserves every bit of the praise that he gets from his peers, but also the whole tennis community. He\u2019s a very nice young man. Good values, nice family. Of course, already a legendary tennis player that made already a huge mark in the history books of tennis with only 22 years of age. It\u2019s super impressive, no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This tournament was Alcaraz\u2019s first since deciding to split with Juan Carlos Ferrero and install Samuel L\u00f3pez, formerly Ferrero\u2019s deputy, as his head coach. Alcaraz\u2019s coaching decision was the source of ample speculation and criticism throughout the off-season. Alcaraz says he is glad to have silenced the doubters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think about those people that had doubts about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI came here just playing for myself, playing for my team. We all know how hard I worked in the pre-season to be ready for this tournament, and I had too many things to think about during this tournament. Just focus on my game style, focus on myself, being passionate, and that\u2019s all I thought about during this tournament. But once I get it, I\u2019m just happy to prove all the people were wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz has commemorated his first titles at each grand slam with a tattoo. After Sunday\u2019s victory, he is already planning a kangaroo tattoo on one of his legs: \u201cI\u2019ve said it\u2019s going to be a little kangaroo. It\u2019s going to be in the leg, for sure. I don\u2019t know the right, the left one. So I got to choose a good spot, but it\u2019s going to be for sure close to the French Open or Wimbledon. I just have to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic called Carlos Alcaraz a tennis legend at the age of 22 after the Spaniard became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-448293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}