{"id":435411,"date":"2026-01-28T19:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/435411\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:58:07","slug":"novak-djokovic-feels-slighted-about-chasing-jannik-sinner-carlos-alcaraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/435411\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic feels slighted about &#8216;chasing&#8217; Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Novak Djokovic is getting fortuitous wins on the court at the Australian Open \u2014\u00a0but will not accept Ls in his press conferences.<\/p>\n<p>The Serbian was not pleased with a reporter who asked how it felt \u201cchasing\u201d Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz at Grand Slams after facing a similar scenario earlier in his career with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic noted that the question ignored his own run of dominance between those two eras. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m chasing Jannik and Carlos? In which sense?\u201d Djokovic shot back. \u201cSo, I\u2019m always the chaser and never been chased?\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Novak Djokovic: \u201cI\u2019m chasing Sinner and Alcaraz? I\u2019m always the chaser and never been chased? I find it disrespectful that you missed out on what happened in between when I dominated the Grand Slams for 15 years.\u201d \ud83d\udd25<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rhPL3gQ4yJ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/rhPL3gQ4yJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Danny (@DjokovicFan_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DjokovicFan_\/status\/2016451826712039810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reporter then noted that he should have mentioned that Djokovic won an all-time best 24 Grand Slams, though that did not completely appease the 38-year-old tennis star.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find if a little bit disrespectful that you kind of miss out on what happened in between where the times when I started \u2018chasing\u2019 as you say Rafa and Roger and now that I\u2019m chasing Carlos and Jannik,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cThere\u2019s probably about a 15-year period in between where I was dominating the Grand Slams. I think it\u2019s important to put that in perspective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m chasing to be honest. Roger and Rafa will always be my greatest rivals. I have tremendous respect for what Jannik and Carlos are doing and they will continue to do for the next 10, 15, 20 years, God knows how many years they are going to play. They are so young.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic reached the semifinals all four Grand Slams last year \u2014\u00a0and is now back again at this year\u2019s Australian Open. His last three Grand Slam runs in 2025 ended with losses to Sinner or Alcaraz.<\/p>\n<p>Serbia\u2019s Novak Djokovic hits a return to Italy\u2019s Lorenzo Musetti during their men\u2019s singles quarter-final match on day eleven of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2026.  AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He will face Sinner in the semifinals of this Australian Open, with Alcaraz going up against Alex Zverev.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic is lucky to have even gotten this far, though.<\/p>\n<p>He won his fourth-round match over Jakub Mensik in a walkover and dropped the first two sets Tuesday to Lorenzo Musetti before the fifth-seeded Italian had to withdraw with a right leg issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what to say except for I feel sorry for him,\u201d Djokovic said after the match, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheTennisLetter\/status\/2016403951680414074\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to The Tennis Letter.<\/a> \u201cHe was the far better player, I was on my way home tonight. Don\u2019t know what to say, these kind of things happen in sport. It happened to me a few times \u2026 I wish him a speedy recovery and he should\u2019ve been the winner today, no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Lorenzo Musetti of Italy embrace at the net after Musetti had to retire at the Australian Open. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic\u2019s 15-year estimate of dominance may be a bit exaggerated.<\/p>\n<p>He, Federer and Nadal were exchanging Grand Slam wins and the world\u2019s No. 1 ranking for a number of years before Djokovic took over as the unquestioned top player in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic won 12 Grand Slams between 2018-23 and was consistently No. 1 when Federer and Nadal were on the backend of their storied careers.<\/p>\n<p>Novak Djokovic advanced to the semifinals at the Australian Open. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Now, staring down Alcaraz and Sinner is a different kind of challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard and the Italian have split the eight Grand Slams the past two years after Djokovic won the 2023 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre they better than me and most of the other guys right now? Yes, they are,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cThe quality and level is amazing, it\u2019s great, it\u2019s phenomenal. Does that mean I walk out with a white flag? No, I am going to fight till the last shot, till the last point and do my very best to challenge them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic is getting fortuitous wins on the court at the Australian Open \u2014\u00a0but will not accept Ls&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12083,2073,432,433,99,428],"class_list":["post-435411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}