Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. HOME News Royal Showbiz & TV Sport Comment Finance Travel Entertainment Life & Style Football Tennis Transfer news F1 Boxing UFC Cricket Rugby Other Golf NFL Racing NBA Carlos Alcaraz has already been able to win one battle with Novak Djokovic this week ahead of their meeting in the Cincinnati Open final. 18: 29, Sun, Aug 20, 2023 | UPDATED: 18: 35, Sun, Aug 20, 2023
Carlos Alcaraz will be the top seed at the US Open over Novak Djokovic (Image: Getty)
Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic will do battle in the Cincinnati Masters final, just a few weeks after the 20-year-old beat the world No 2 in the championship match at Wimbledon. The pair had been in a battle for the No 1 spot this week but Alcaraz has managed to retain the ranking and will now officially be the top seed at the US Open. It marks the first time in five years that Djokovic hasn’t been the top seed at any of the four Grand Slams in a single season.
Alcaraz and Djokovic are set to face off for the fourth time in their careers and the third this season. The Spaniard leads their head-to-head by two wins to one loss, including arguably the most significant match – last month’s Wimbledon final.
And the 12-time title winner will also go into their match in Cincinnati with bragging rights after winning this week’s race for the No 1 ranking and top seed spot at the upcoming US Open. By reaching the final, Alcaraz is guaranteed to stay ahead of the Serb regardless of Sunday’s result.
It means that the 20-year-old has been the top seed at all three of the Grand Slams he has played this year. Meanwhile, Djokovic hasn’t been the No 1 man going into any of the four Majors this season – the first time that has happened since 2018, when he was returning from elbow surgery.
Novak Djokovic has not been the top seed at any of this year’s four Grand Slams (Image: Getty)
The Serb was the No 4 seed when he won the Australian Open, while defending champion Rafael Nadal was the top seed when world No 1 Alcaraz was sidelined with an injury. Djokovic was the third seed at the French Open which meant he found himself in the same half of the draw as Alcaraz but defeated him in their semi-final match.
And just like the upcoming US Open, Djokovic was the second seed behind Alcaraz at Wimbledon which culminated in an epic five-set final where the Spaniard stunned the seven-time champion at the All England Club. The match marked the world No 2’s first defeat on Centre Court in a decade.
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Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in last month’s Wimbledon final (Image: Getty)
He will now be hoping to avenge that defeat in his first tournament since, the Cincinnati Masters. But Djokovic has already admitted that the Wimbledon defeat didn’t weigh on his mind for too long afterwards. “It’s not the first [nor] the last match that I lost, so I was over it in a day,” he said at the start of this week.
Ahead of Sunday’s final, Djokovic said: “It’s the ultimate challenge at the moment, for me, I mean facing him. We faced each other at the last three events – Roland Garros, clay, Wimbledon, grass, and now hard courts. So it’s going to be the first encounter on a hard court. I look forward to it.”
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