Novak Djokovic has asserted that he does not understand the criticism Carlos Alcaraz has faced this year as he pointed out what his young rival has already accomplished.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz<\/a> has faced some harsh scrutiny this season, particularly during a mixed run of results prior to the clay-court season.<\/p>\n The world No 3 has amassed a strong 24-5 (82.8%) record across the seven tournaments he has played so far in 2025.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old has won titles in Rotterdam and Monte Carlo and was a runner-up at the Barcelona Open.<\/p>\n Alcaraz was also a semi-finalist in Indian Wells and a quarter-finalist at both the Australian Open and the Qatar Open, while he lost his opening match at the Miami Open.<\/p>\n The Spanish star has won 18 titles, including four Grand Slams and six Masters 1000 events, in his outstanding career to date.<\/p>\n Ahead of the 2025 Madrid Open, Djokovic<\/a> took issue with the criticism Alcaraz has received in his home country.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t understand it,\u201d the Serbian told Eurosport Spain. \u201cBut the atmosphere and tradition of tennis in this country is very high.<\/p>\n \u201cThe expectation is enormous after Nadal, [Carlos] Moya, [Juan Carlos] Ferrero\u2026 they\u2019ve all been world No 1.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, listen. He\u2019s 21 years old, he\u2019s won four Grand Slams and many tournaments. What more do you want? You want more, but what he\u2019s done in this period is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Djokovic holds a 5-3 record against Alcaraz in what is a fascinating inter-generational rivalry.<\/p>\n ATP Rankings: How many points are Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Rublev dropping in Madrid?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Boris Becker claims tennis \u2018needs\u2019 both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The Serbian won the pair\u2019s most recent encounter in four sets in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.<\/p>\n The duo are both in the bottom half of the Madrid Masters draw and could face off in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n Alcaraz, the No 2 seed, will play either Zizou Bergs or Yoshihito Nishioka in his first match in Madrid. Djokovic, who is seeded fourth, will take on Matteo Arnaldi or Borna Coric.<\/p>\n In an interview with GQ earlier this year, Djokovic addressed Alcaraz\u2019s achievements and the ambitious statements he has made.<\/p>\n \u201cCarlos has done something no one has done in history for such a young age. So the odds are with him. He is going to complete his [career] Slam very soon,\u201d the 24-time major winner said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s even said himself, he wants to make history. He wants to be \u2018the best in history.\u2019 I respect that kind of mentality of, \u2018Hey, I think I got the goods.\u2019 But maybe it\u2019s a little bit early for him to think about history.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz leaves former world No 2 feeling \u2018uneasy\u2019 ahead of Madrid Open<\/a> The post Novak Djokovic makes feelings clear on criticism Carlos Alcaraz has faced<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has asserted that he does not understand the criticism Carlos Alcaraz has faced this year as he pointed out what his young rival has already accomplished. Alcaraz has faced some harsh scrutiny this season, particularly during a mixed run of results prior to the clay-court season. The world No 3 has amassed a […]<\/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-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","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=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Carlos Alcaraz News<\/h2>\n
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