Novak Djokovic took issue with a question about him \u201cchasing\u201d Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner that he found \u201cdisrespectful\u201d after reaching the Australian Open semi-finals.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old tennis legend was trailing world No 5 Lorenzo Musetti 4-6, 3-6, 3-1 in the quarter-finals in Melbourne when the Italian was forced to retire due to a leg injury.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> will face Sinner<\/a>, the two-time reigning Australian Open<\/a> champion and world No 2, in the semi-finals. Sinner downed seventh-ranked Ben Shelton 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the last eight.<\/p>\n In his post-match press conference, Djokovic interrupted a reporter who compared the Serbian\u2019s current situation to when he was competing with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the start of his career.<\/p>\n Here is the full exchange.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong> In the early part of your career when you were chasing Roger and Rafa for titles, and now at the back end of your career, you\u2019re chasing Jannik and Carlos\u2013<\/p>\n Djokovic:<\/strong> I\u2019m chasing Jannik and Carlos? In which sense?<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong> In terms of winning Grand Slam titles, just right now.<\/p>\n Djokovic: <\/strong>So I\u2019m always the chaser and I\u2019m never being chased?<\/p>\n pic.twitter.com\/y2NAzLRzpz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Chad Dinas (@ChadDinas) January 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Q.<\/strong> In the meantime, you won 24 Grand Slams\u2013<\/p>\n Djokovic:<\/strong> Thanks. It\u2019s worth saying that sometimes, right?<\/p>\n Q. <\/strong>Sorry, I should have put that in the middle\u2026<\/p>\n Djokovic:<\/strong> No worries, no worries.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic gets warning about his level from experts after \u2018lucky\u2019 Australian Open escape<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Australian Open: Lorenzo Musetti makes telling confession about injury after \u2018painful\u2019 retirement<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Q.<\/strong> So, what I\u2019m saying is, is it possible to compare the way you felt initially when you were chasing Roger and Rafa with now when Jannik and Carlos have split the last eight Slams?<\/p>\n Djokovic: <\/strong>Well, I find it a little bit disrespectful that you kind of miss out on what happened in between where, the times when I started chasing, as you say, Rafa and Roger, and now that I\u2019m chasing Carlos and Jannik. And there\u2019s probably about a 15-year period in between where I was dominating the Grand Slams. So I think it\u2019s important to put that in prospect and perspective.<\/p>\n I 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 continue to do, and they will do for the next 10 to 15, 20 years. God knows how many years they\u2019re going to play, they\u2019re so young.<\/p>\n This is a kind of natural cycle in sports. You\u2019re going to have another two superstars that are going to maybe have another third guy that I\u2019m going to cheer for, because I\u2019ve always been the third guy at the beginning. But it\u2019s good for our sport, I think these kind of rivalries, and the contrast of the personalities and the styles of play, are very good for tennis.<\/p>\n And how is that affecting me? As I said, I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m chasing. I\u2019m creating my own history, and I think I\u2019ve been very clear when I say that my intention is always to, in terms of achievements and objectives and results, I want to get to the championship match in every tournament, particularly Slams. And Slams are one of the biggest reasons why I keep on competing and playing tennis. So yeah, that\u2019s all I can say.<\/p>\n Are they (Alcaraz and Sinner) better right now than me and all the other guys? Yes, they are. I mean, the quality and the level is amazing. It\u2019s great. It\u2019s phenomenal. But does that mean that I walk out with the white flag? No. I\u2019m going to fight until the last shot, until the last point, and do my very best to challenge them.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Iconic Novak Djokovic tennis racket set to sell for incredible sum at auction<\/a> The post Watch: Novak Djokovic calls out \u2018disrespectful\u2019 question involving Alcaraz, Sinner, Federer & Nadal<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic took issue with a question about him \u201cchasing\u201d Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner that he found \u201cdisrespectful\u201d after reaching the Australian Open semi-finals. The 38-year-old tennis legend was trailing world No 5 Lorenzo Musetti 4-6, 3-6, 3-1 in the quarter-finals in Melbourne when the Italian was forced to retire due to a leg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Australian Open News<\/h2>\n
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