Djokovic shocks Alcaraz with a devastating return, in Riyadh

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz played an exhibition match at the Riyadh Season Tennis Cup. As often happened between the two. Nole and Carlitos played an intense and balanced match. At the Riyadh Season Tennis Cup, on the indoor hard court of the Kingdom Arena, Alcaraz came from behind to defeat Djokovic with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The Spaniard started better and immediately surprised his rival in response, but lost serve in the fourth game. Djokovic blasted him with a fantastic forehand return. On 3-3, the Serbian champion recovered from 0-40 and put pressure on Alcaraz who played a terrible game down 4-5 and ended with a painful double fault.

Carlitos did not let himself be influenced and erased the errors by immediately breaking Djokovic in the second set. This time, unlike what happened in the first, Alcaraz protected the lead carefully and never allowed Djokovic to close the gap.

The third game of the decisive set saw Alcaraz win the tug-of-war with the Serbian and take the lead again.

Djokovic stunned Alcaraz with a super return

Djokovic, as often happens, did not give up easily and equalized the score, taking the score to 3-3 thanks to his opponent’s complicated attempt at the net.

In the key moment, the forehand betrayed Djokovic and allowed Alcaraz to serve for the match. The 20-year-old didn’t waste his opportunity and raised his arms in the air in victory. Djokovic and Alcaraz will reach Australia in the next few days for the first part of the season.

Nole will take the field at the United Cup and will represent Serbia, Carlitos, however, has chosen to officially start again at the Australian Open. One of the most exceptional points of the match was Djokovic’s response to Alcaraz’s serve: a shot with which the Serb stunned the Spaniard, as you can see in the video shared by account @BastienFachan:

Djokovic with the ‘too hot to handle’ reaction after hitting a return stunner to break back >> pic.twitter.com/T5FSyqO2Kc — Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) December 27, 2023

We recall Djokovic is the defending champion at the upcoming Australian Open, and he will have to defend 2000 points, while Alcaraz has no points to defend in Melbourne, due to the absence of the 2023 edition of the Slam Down Under.