{"id":97117,"date":"2026-02-02T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97117"},"modified":"2026-02-01T22:47:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:47:33","slug":"novak-djokovic-delivers-huge-praise-for-legendary-carlos-alcaraz-after-australian-open-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/02\/novak-djokovic-delivers-huge-praise-for-legendary-carlos-alcaraz-after-australian-open-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic Delivers Huge Praise for \u201cLegendary\u201d Carlos Alcaraz After Australian Open Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

And just like that, the 2026 Australian Open is in the books \u2014 a tournament that started slowly but finished with no shortage of drama, driven by a spectacular final two rounds<\/a> that more than delivered.<\/p>\n

The chief architect of that late-tournament chaos was Novak Djokovic, who once again shocked the tennis world with his semifinal performance<\/a> before producing a remarkable effort in the final against Carlos Alcaraz, even if it ultimately ended in defeat.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic Rolls Back the Years<\/h3>\n

Djokovic stunned fans in the semifinals with a performance that few thought was still possible at this stage of his career. Once again, he defied expectations and reminded everyone why he remains one of the sport\u2019s greatest competitors.<\/p>\n

While Djokovic started the final strongly as well, playing some of his best tennis in a long time during the opening set, he gradually faded as the match progressed. Alcaraz\u2019s superior firepower and endurance eventually proved too much for the soon-to-be 39-year-old, who simply could not sustain that early level.<\/p>\n

Djokovic\u2019s Post-Match Praise for Alcaraz<\/h3>\n

And now, after the match, Djokovic has confessed that the young Spaniard isn\u2019t just one of the current best players in the world, but a player who can be a historical figure in tennis history.<\/p>\n

Speaking in his post-match press conference, when asked about Alcaraz, Djokovic said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results are a testament to his already stellar career. Can\u2019t think of any superlatives about him. He deserves every bit of praise he gets. He\u2019s a very nice young man. Good values. Nice family. Already a legendary tennis player that made a huge mark in the history books of tennis, with only 22 years of age.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

When you consider everything Alcaraz has already accomplished, most recently becoming the youngest men\u2019s player in the Open Era to complete the Career Grand Slam<\/a>, it is no longer just an argument, but a legitimate case, that he already belongs on a very short list of the greatest players the sport has ever seen.<\/p>\n

And there is arguably no greater endorsement for the World No. 1 than praise from Djokovic himself, statistically the greatest player of all time, and the very man whose records Alcaraz is likely to chase over the next decade and beyond.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And just like that, the 2026 Australian Open is in the books \u2014 a tournament that started slowly but finished with no shortage of drama, driven by a spectacular final two rounds that more than delivered. The chief architect of that late-tournament chaos was Novak Djokovic, who once again shocked the tennis world with his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":96646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2],"tags":[259,205,5729,22],"class_list":["post-97117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-atp","category-featured","tag-atp-tour","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-novak-djokovic"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97117"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97168,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97117\/revisions\/97168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}