{"id":417641,"date":"2026-02-10T08:01:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/417641\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T08:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:01:36","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-shares-rafael-nadal-chat-and-admits-novak-djkovic-error-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/417641\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz shares Rafael Nadal chat and admits Novak Djkovic error | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz shared what Rafael Nadal told him about his performance after clinching the Australian Open title. The 22-year-old achieved his career Grand Slam earlier this month by defeating Novak Djokovic in the final<\/a> at the Rod Laver Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite being world No.1, the Spanish ace had never previously gone beyond the quarter-final stage at the Melbourne major. Alcaraz<\/a> faced early adversity in his showdown with Djokovic<\/a> as the veteran claimed the first set 6-2. However, the new Australian Open<\/a> champion regrouped to clinch the next three sets 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 and achieve a career milestone<\/a>. Tennis legend Nadal<\/a> was in attendance for the final and Alcaraz recalled what his compatriot said to him during their post-match discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cRafa congratulated me and we talked a little bit about the match, about how well Novak started, how difficult it was,\u201d Alcaraz told Marca<\/a>. \u201cI told him that tactically, I started in a way that didn’t work. I was playing very straight and he told me that he saw it that way too.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe didn’t talk much because I had my things and he was leaving. It was a very special moment to hug Rafa with the trophy in my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz secured a seventh Grand Slam title, while denying Djokovic his 25th major win and moving their head-to-head record to five victories apiece. Alcaraz also faced Nadal on three occasions, claiming a sole victory over his idol at the 2022 Madrid Open, but it was as team-mates that the pair strengthened their bond.<\/p>\n

During his retirement year, Nadal opted to pair up with Alcaraz for the doubles event at the Paris Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals. Both men were also part of Spain\u2019s team for the Davis Cup, where Nadal called time on his career It has been a whirlwind few years for Alcaraz and he reflected on the honour of having Nadal as a mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to appreciate things,\u201d he said to El Partidazo de COPE<\/a>. \u201cYou have to stop for a moment and think about everything you are doing. And enjoy it. And appreciate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Rafa watching the match made the day even more special. The fact that Rafa congratulates me and is happy for my successes and for me reflects what a wonderful person he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already said this at the Olympics, when I got to know him better, but it’s an incredible feeling to be able to say that I talk to him as an equal and a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz shared what Rafael Nadal told him about his performance after clinching the Australian Open title. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[21399,126862,870,6766,6767,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-417641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-australian-open-2026","10":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","11":"tag-novak-djokovic","12":"tag-rafael-nadal","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417641","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=417641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}