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Novak Djokovic of Serbia (L) and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. They will meet in the Australian Open Men\u2019s Final on February 1,2026 at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n
Retired tennis icon\u00a0Rafael Nadal<\/a> is picking his fellow countryman, Carlos Alcaraz, to defeat Novak Djokovic in Sunday\u2019s Australian Open men\u2019s final and become the youngest player ever<\/a> to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I have mixed feelings because my history with Novak is spectacular,\u201d Nadal said, previewing the Australian Open men\u2019s final, via Puntodebreak.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe competed at the highest level for many years, and I wish him the best. Sincerely, if he were to win, I would be very happy for him. But, on the other hand, Carlos is my compatriot, and we have shared important moments in the Olympics, so I have to support him. In any case, there won\u2019t be any drama for me no matter the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcaraz, 22, will incidentally break the record of his mentor, Nadal, who at the age of 24, became the youngest to win all four majors when he captured the 2010 US Open. The World No. 1 Alcaraz is already the second-youngest player to win at least six major titles, having triumphed twice at the US Open (2022, 2025), Wimbledon (2023, 2024) and French Open (2024, 2025). If Alcaraz prevails on Sunday, he\u2019d consolidate his place as the second youngest player to win seven Grand Slam titles, behind only Bjorn Borg, who achieved the same feat at the age of 22 years and 32 days.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic on Cusp of History<\/p>\n Alcaraz isn\u2019t the only player on the cusp of making history on Sunday, as Djokovic has the chance to capture his record-breaking 25th major after going two full years without a Grand Slam for the first time since the mid-2000s. Incidentally, the person standing in his way, Alcaraz, is the last to have denied him the elusive major when they locked horns in the 2024 Wimbledon final. Since then, Djokovic has struggled to get to the championship round, losing four consecutive semifinals in 2025, including a loss to Alcaraz at Flushing Meadows in the final major of last season.<\/p>\n During that match at the US Open, Djokovic was utterly dominated by the Spaniard, as he lost in straight sets to the eventual champion.<\/p>\n Australian Open Betting Odds<\/p>\n The one factor working in Djokovic\u2019s favor is his 3-1 record against Alcaraz on hard courts, which includes last year\u2019s Australian Open quarterfinal win, and an overall 5-4\u00a0career head-to-head advantage<\/a>. Furthermore, the 10-time winner at Melbourne Park is the sentimental favorite and will have the crowd firmly behind him Sunday.<\/p>\n Much like Nadal, the oddsmakers are also backing Alcaraz, with the Spaniard entering the match as a slight-301 favorite while Djokovic is a +240 underdog, per DraftKings<\/a>. It\u2019s worth noting that Djokovic was a significantly bigger underdog entering the semifinal against back-to-back Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner, before taking down the Italian in a classic five-setter to advance to Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n One thing is certain: Djokovic, 38, who has struggled to stay healthy in recent years, will likely never get another chance to claim his record-breaking 25th major. He\u2019s playing at the venue where he\u2019s had his greatest success, against an opponent who has never prevailed at the Australian Open. It could be now or never for the Serbian.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Tennis\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Novak Djokovic of Serbia (L) and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. They will meet in the Australian Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-441664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441664","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=441664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}