Djokovic weighs in on new tennis rivalry that caught his attention

Novak Djokovic has lauded the budding rivalry between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner after missing out on playing in Indian Wells and Miami. The pair faced off in the semi-final stage of both Masters 1000 events, splitting victories. And Djokovic admitted that their matches caught his attention while he was banned from entering America to compete.

Djokovic is currently playing his first tournament since February at the Monte Carlo Masters. The world No 1 was unable to compete in Indian Wells and Miami last month when US Homeland Security denied his vaccine waiver request – the second year in a row he was banned from playing the ‘sunshine double’.

After making a winning return to competition, the 35-year-old discussed what he did with his downtime while being forced to miss the two Masters events. And Djokovic did manage to enjoy some of the matches in Indian Wells and Miami despite his absence – notably between two of the game’s young stars.

“I got to spend some time with the family and did other things off the court,” the 22-time Major champion told Eurosport. “But I was thinking about tennis, mostly about myself and how I can prepare myself the best possible in order to kick off the clay season in a good manner.”

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While he was focusing on his own return to action, Djokovic did enjoy some of the action in America despite being unable to join in as he talked up the rivalry between Alcaraz and Sinner. “I did follow some of the matches from Indian Wells and Miami,” he continued.

“Highlights more than the entire match – not much patience for that – but I saw some spectacular points, especially from Alcaraz, Sinner, [Daniil] Medvedev. I think it’s a great rivalry that’s coming up between Alcaraz and Sinner – it’s good for our sport.”

Djokovic isn’t the only one who has been enjoying the rivalry between the world No 2 and the Italian, as Juan Martin del Potro compared the two to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal after their five-hour-and-15-minute epic at the US Open.

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And Alcaraz himself has been vocal about his love of facing the world No 8, even taking to Twitter to share his excitement ahead of their Indian Wells semi-final – eventually won by the Spaniard. “Can’t wait to play Jannik tomorrow! No matter who won, I think our previous matches have been great fun for the fans, and also for us!” he tweeted at the time.

The Spaniard went on to lift the title in Indian Wells and even overtook Djokovic as the world No 1 as a result. But Sinner got his revenge in the Miami semi-final by beating Alcaraz – who was the defending champion – and made him hand the No 1 spot back to the Serb.

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