World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz says rumours that his father has recorded a Novak Djokovic training session at Wimbledon are “probably true”.
Alcaraz, 20, and Djokovic, 36, are on a collision course in SW19, with the former facing third seed Daniil Medvedev in his semifinal on Friday at 4.30pm and the latter facing eighth seed Jannik Sinner in the earlier match at 2.30pm for a place in Sunday’s final.
While both will have their work cut out for them in the semis today, the tennis world has already pencilled in a mouthwatering final between the future of the game, Alcaraz and, statistically, the greatest player of all time Djokovic with a record 23 Grand Slams.
After beating Holger Rune in the quarterfinals in straight sets on Wednesday night, Alcaraz was asked in his post-match press conference about skinner that his father had recorded one of Djokovic’s training sessions at the tournament.
Not understanding the question at first, it was repeated before the Spaniard answered: “Oh, probably it is true. My father is a huge fan of tennis. He doesn’t only watch my matches.
“I think he gets into the club at 11am, gets out at 10pm, watching matches, watching practice sessions. Being able to watch Djokovic in real life. Probably it’s true he’s filming sessions.”
While he answered as if his father is just a big fan, Alcaraz was asked if recording the training sessions doesn’t give him an advantage for when he faces the Djoker.
He replied: “I have a lot of videos from Djokovic on every platform. I think it’s not an advantage for me.”
Alcaraz and Djokovic last met in the French Open semifinal last month, with Djokovic winning 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 and 6-1. But it has to be mentioned that Alcaraz suffered an injury in the third set.
Whether these manne will clash in the final on Sunday remains to be seen – they have to clear the Medvedev and Sinner hurdles on Friday first.