{"id":401130,"date":"2026-01-31T19:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/401130\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T19:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:45:09","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-or-novak-djokovic-nadal-reveals-his-spectacular-favourite-to-claim-2026-australian-open-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/401130\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic? Nadal reveals his \u2018spectacular\u2019 favourite to claim 2026 Australian Open crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘One of the best matches I have ever won’ – Alcaraz reacts to epic win over Zverev<\/p>\n

Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n

Tennis legend Rafael Nadal<\/a> has weighed in on who he will be supporting in Sunday\u2019s highly anticipated Australian Open<\/a> final between Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a>.Both finalists battled hard through their respective semi-finals to find a way to Sunday\u2019s showpiece final at the Rod Laver Arena, which will be live on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a>.Alcaraz was locked into a gruelling five-and-a-half hour five-set thriller<\/a> against Alexander Zverev,<\/a> eventually prevailing 6-4 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-7(4) 7-5, while Djokovic triumphed<\/a> against Jannik Sinner<\/a> 3-6 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-4 in a comparatively short four hours and nine minutes. <\/p>\n

The final match-up means that whatever happens, history will be made, with Alcaraz bidding to become the youngest-ever player to achieve the career Grand Slam of winning all four majors at 22 and Djokovic looking to move ahead of Margaret Court as the outright major record holder in the sport with 25 titles. <\/p>\n

If the final is anything like the two semi-finals, then the Melbourne crowd are in for a treat and while Nadal – who won the Australian Open in 2009 and 2022 – would prefer his compatriot to win, he too is hoping for another stellar match.<\/p>\n

He told Spanish outlet EFE<\/a>: “I have a good relationship with him [Alcaraz], we competed in the Olympics together, we were both in the Spanish team.\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Highlights: Alcaraz overcomes cramp to beat Zverev in five-set thriller<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

“If Novak wins, I\u2019ll be happy for him because, in a way, what he\u2019s doing is spectacular. It wouldn\u2019t be a tragedy for me, but if I have to support someone, I feel I have to support Carlos.<\/p>\n

“Yesterday was an exciting match, I think it had a bit of everything. “<\/p>\n

Alcaraz stayed on the court for an extra hour and 18 minutes and was struggling with cramps from the third set onwards, before eventually finding that extra gear required to beat Zverev.<\/p>\n

That extra time on court must surely count against the six-time major winner in Melbourne, who is also in uncharted waters, having never previously advanced past the quarter-finals of the Australian Open until this tournament.<\/p>\n

Djokovic was put through his paces too, however, and had to fight with everything he had to overcome Sinner for the first time since 2023, snapping a five-match losing streak against the Italian.<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Highlights: Djokovic beats Sinner in thriller to set up Alcaraz final<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

Nadal is all too aware of just how hard both players had to work to reach the final and although Alcaraz played for that much longer than Djokovic, the 22-time major winner believes he can recover quicker due to his age.<\/p>\n

“There was drama because of what happened to Carlos in the third set and then, as is normal in these situations, the cramps, if you manage to hold on for a while, usually pass – they are sometimes tension cramps,” Nadal said.<\/p>\n

“In the end, the game had everything it needs to get people involved, to generate emotions in our sport and in the people who are watching it.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m sure [Alcaraz] will recover, even though it was a long battle, the other semi-final wasn\u2019t short either, and it was against a player of a different age, so I think Carlos has an even better chance of recovering than Novak.” <\/p>\n

Stream every match of the 2026 Australian Open live and on-demand on discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘One of the best matches I have ever won’ – Alcaraz reacts to epic win over Zverev Video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[126862,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-401130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-australian-open-2026","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}