Follow live post-match reaction of the Australian Open men’s final
MELBOURNE, Australia — Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 in the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park Sunday.
The No. 1 seed prevailed over the No. 4 seed in a match played in a fascinating inversion of most of both players’ careers. It was ultimately decided by Alcaraz’s ability to break Djokovic’s flow state, his willingness to be the antagonist, and how much Djokovic’s stunning semifinal against Jannik Sinner had taken out of his body.
It is Alcaraz’s seventh Grand Slam title, drawing him level with John McEnroe and Mats Wilander in the all-time list.
Alcaraz becomes the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam, at 22 years, 8 months and 28 days old, surpassing Rafael Nadal’s record of 24 years, 3 months and 10 days.
The Athletic’s writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the final and what it means for tennis.
How did Djokovic pick up from where he left off in his semifinal?
Roughly midway through his five-set win over Jannik Sinner, Djokovic started serving as well as he has in years. That kept going through his opening set against Alcaraz in the final.
The numbers were downright silly. Djokovic landed 78 percent of his first serves and won 93 percent of his first-serve points. Alcaraz seemed clueless throughout the set, which lasted just 35 minutes. If Djokovic seemed to know where nearly every Alcaraz serve was going, Alcaraz was the opposite. He looked like he was constantly guessing, and constantly guessing wrong.
This week, he had described the difficulty of facing Djokovic’s “sleeper serve” that slides off the court. He had talked about Djokovic’s ability to put the ball within inches of the lines, or right on top of them, in game after game. He had said power is overrated. He was right. When Djokovic is on, he spot-serves as well as anyone.
Djokovic lived up to that billing. He sent Alcaraz lunging and stutter-stepping as he tried to catch up with those bending, slicing serves. With Alcaraz off-balance, Djokovic could do what he does best: Set his feet on the baseline in the middle of the court, and dole out groundstroke punishment.
Novak Djokovic used his serve to take Carlos Alcaraz out of the equation in the opening set. (Paul Crock / AFP via Getty Images)
And then there was Djokovic’s returning. Remember when Alcaraz’s serve was more of a mechanism to start points rather than a weapon? And how he could be vulnerable to someone redlining?
Well, the first set of Sunday’s final was a throwback to that. Not because of anything he did particularly wrong with the shot, but because of Djokovic’s returning.
As he has extended his career, Djokovic has improved his serve and gone harder with the return to shorten points, making it a bit less consistent. In the early stages, though, his returns were at their absolute best, and they completely rocked Alcaraz.
Since the 2025 Australian Open, Alcaraz has become far more effective at picking up cheap points on his serve. He has even started winning sets almost on its strength alone, such as the first set of his semifinal against Alexander Zverev Friday, when he served his way through an overall dip.
In the first set against Djokovic, Alcaraz only won 50 percent of points on his serve, a barely believable statistic for a player who was only broken twice during the whole of his 2025 U.S. Open title run.
After constantly pushing his opponent back, Djokovic could then tee off from the ground. His forehand was particularly devastating, as it was against Sinner in the semifinals. A crosscourt winner that flew past Alcaraz to bring up two set points had the world No. 1 shaking his head in disbelief.
This was Djokovic at his punishing best.
Four service games with two points lost on serve. It all added up to a 6-2 wipeout and an absolutely priceless display of energy conservation that was essential for a 38-year-old coming off a five-set, four-hour comeback win.
— Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare
What did the second set say about the limits of Djokovic’s game plan?
When Djokovic was dominating the tour, there would still be the odd day when he would face an opponent who had come out absolutely redlining.
Inevitably, that player could not sustain such a high level for a whole match, especially at a Grand Slam. They would assume too much risk, and eventually they would start missing.
On Sunday, with Djokovic the overall underdog, the roles were reversed. It was Djokovic who had to play at his absolute maximum to win the first set, and it was Djokovic whose level fell in the second. Having played somewhere near his current peak for three sets against Sinner and one against Alcaraz, a dip — as he experienced twice against Sinner — was in the post.
All of a sudden, he was missing returns, smashing forehands closer to the back wall than the baseline, and looking a step slow.
Alcaraz raised his level a little too, but the momentum switch felt more to do with what was happening on the other side of the net. There may also have been an element of energy conservation, with Djokovic hitting out once a break down. He appeared to recognize that if the set went long, but he still lost it, he would expend too much energy against an opponent who is 16 years his junior and boasts a 15-1 record in five-set matches.
Carlos Alcaraz raised his level in the second set as Novak Djokovic’s flawless play began to drop. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Djokovic was once nicknamed “the taxman” by former world No. 4 Brad Gilbert, but it was Alcaraz, who doesn’t need a lot to get a toehold in a match, who was doing the collecting in the second set.
He got a touch of luck from a net cord, with Djokovic serving at 1-1, 15-15. Alcaraz yanked a hard inside-in forehand that ticked the top of the net, before stopping almost dead and bouncing twice on Djokovic’s side. That put Djokovic in danger and on edge.
At least that’s how he played the next two points. He sent a short forehand beyond the baseline, and then decided to serve-and-volley behind a second serve. He missed a backhand volley off Alcaraz’s forehand return, and the game was gone.
Alcaraz had his break of serve, but at 15-15 in the next game, he reached to volley a ball that was headed for the back wall and flubbed it into the net. Deeper into the game, with Djokovic on the attack, Alcaraz scrambled to his right to get his strings on what looked like a point-ending forehand. He squash-shotted the ball back crosscourt, deep in the corner, and reset the point before winning it.
Alcaraz raised his fist, knowing the importance of what he had just done. He cruised to solidify the break from there, and later broke again to win the set and level the match.
— Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman
How did Alcaraz impose himself by assuming the antagonist role?
Given the way Djokovic outlasted Alcaraz in their first Grand Slam meeting at the French Open in 2023, and showed him how different five-set tennis is, this was an impressive role reversal.
Alcaraz didn’t panic after losing the first set, but trusted his ability to work his way back into the match. After Djokovic’s level dropped in the second set, Alcaraz set about asking his opponent awkward questions in the third, testing his legs and mind. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was extremely effective.
He started to bring the drop shot into play a little bit, but it was more about locking down defensively and making his opponent, a 38-year-old with five sets in his legs from Friday night, play the extra shot. Doing so inevitably drew more errors from Djokovic as he was increasingly forced to go for too much.
For so long, Djokovic was the master of pushing his opponents to a state where they would beat themselves. Alcaraz did something similar here, as Djokovic’s unforced error count went from four in the first set to 11 in the second and 14 in the third.
Alcaraz also made active adjustments to his usual game. He stepped back deep when returning, especially on second serves, and handcuffed Djokovic with looping returns within a few feet of the baseline. Some of them were lofted and heavy; others were drilled straight at Djokovic. Some of Alcaraz’s unbelievable defense once the points started must have brought back memories for Djokovic of what he did to opponents for the best part of two decades.
Imagining Alcaraz as the steady one and Djokovic as the volatile one would have been impossible at the time of that first Slam meeting three years ago. Here, it turned the match in Alcaraz’s favor.
— Charlie Eccleshare
What made Djokovic leave his flow state?
Friday night against Sinner, Djokovic was in the zone. Whenever he needed a miracle shot, or a perfect serve, or one of his patented point-flipping shots from behind the baseline or deep in a corner, he found one.
His knees and feet would get him behind the ball. He would swing as hard as he could. He would leather the ball onto the outside of a line or into the tiniest space available. It wasn’t effortless, but it looked that way.
In the all-important third set against Alcaraz, when he most needed to find that flow, it was nowhere to be found. All those bailout forehands and ripping backhands against Sinner had sapped some of the magic. Djokovic started to miss by an inch. As the set progressed, the misses grew bigger.
There are supernatural explanations for such things, but the most likely reason, and the one that seemed most apparent, was that his legs were going. No one has ever beaten Sinner and Alcaraz consecutively at a major. Now they have split the past nine Grand Slams. Beating one is a miracle achievement but the effort required to go and take down the other is almost impossible.
Novak Djokovic’s feet started to move a little more slowly as the match progressed. (Paul Crock / AFP via Getty Images)
Against Alcaraz, Djokovic did not get to the ball with the efficiency he had against Sinner.
Things started to go south when he left an easy putaway forehand too straight when serving at 2-2, 0-15. Alcaraz adjusted quickly, got it back, and stole the point. After winning the next point, Djokovic pushed a backhand wide, gifting Alcaraz two chances to break.
Then Djokovic chased a forehand and took the swing that had saved him two nights before. This one had a little more lunge to it. It missed.
Alcaraz had his break. Djokovic kept stretching for miracles for the rest of the set. But he kept coming up empty.
— Matt Futterman
What decided the fourth and final set?
After breaking to win the third set, Alcaraz had all the momentum.
And when he bullied his way to 15-40 in Djokovic’s first service game of the fourth, profiting from a couple of cheap errors by the 10-time Australian Open champion, it looked as though Alcaraz might cruise to victory.
But achievements like the one he was pursuing rarely come easy. Against Djokovic, they never do. Djokovic saved both break points, and four more in the game, to cling on and ask Alcaraz to take it from him.
After witnessing Sinner miss 16 break points against the same opponent on Friday, Alcaraz would have been forgiven for worrying that something similar might happen to him — especially against arguably tennis’s greatest escape artist, at least until the Spaniard usurps him.
In the eighth game of the set, Alcaraz was again on the brink of the break he needed, up 0-30 with Djokovic serving down 4-3. But Djokovic came up with the goods again.
Djokovic sensed the moment, and asked the crowd to make more noise after he toughed out a couple of brilliant defensive points to get to 30-30 in the next game. They responded, roaring his name, before Djokovic forced a first break point since early in the second set after another Alcaraz error. He was a point away from having the chance to improbably serve for the fourth set, but hooked a forehand out when he was set and looked ready to strike it into the corner.
Alcaraz had been under no real pressure since then, but he stood up to it here, and then let out a roar for the crowd of his own after eking out the hold for 5-4.
Three games later, it was all over. Alcaraz delivered when it mattered most to break Djokovic for the title, and to make another piece of tennis history.
— Charlie Eccleshare
What did Carlos Alcaraz say after the final?
Speaking on-court after his victory, Alcaraz momentarily struggled to find the words. “Wow,” he said. “First of all, I want to talk about Novak. He deserves some ovation. What you’re doing is really inspiring, not only for tennis players but for all the people around the world. Just putting in the right work, the hard work, every day with your team.
“It’s been an honor sharing the court, watching you play, so thank you very much for what you’re doing. It is really inspiring to me.
“My team over there in that corner. Nobody knows how hard I’ve been working to get this trophy. I chased this moment so much. We did not hear anything about what people were saying before coming to Australia, we just did the right work.
“This trophy is always yours.”
He also paid tribute to Nadal, who was watching from the stands. “It’s a little bit weird seeing Rafa in the stands,” Alcaraz said. “I think it’s the first time. It’s such an honor playing in front of you. We had great battles on the court, not too many, but it was an honor sharing the court, practicing. Seeing you watching my matches it’s just an honor and a privilege.”
What did Novak Djokovic say after the final?
“Congratulations, Carlos — an amazing tournament,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “What you’ve been doing… historic, legendary. You’re so young, you have a lot more time. So I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other a lot more times in the next 10 years… not.
“I have to thank my time for enduring me, for giving me support. It hasn’t been smooth sailing, it never is, but you guys are my rock in my corner. You’ve seen the worst and the best of me the last few years, but especially the last three weeks, and this success is your success.”
He then turned to Nadal. “It feels very weird to see you there, not here,” Djokovic continued. “But it’s been an honor to share the court with you and to have you watching the finals here. It’s the first time for me and obviously a bit of a strange feeling but thank you for being present.
“It’s too many Spanish legends. It was two against one tonight.”
Addressing the crowd again, he said, “The past two matches, you guys gave me something that I have never experienced in Australia.
“I always believe in myself but I didn’t think I would be standing in a closing ceremony of a Grand Slam once again.
“God knows what happens tomorrow, in six months or 12 months. It has been a great ride.”
