By Chris Oddo | @Thefanchild | Wednesday 3 September 2025
Novak Djokovic He has returned to the US Open semifinal for the 14th time, but at the age of 38, the 24-time Grand Slam champion is making no promises of how his body will hold against Carlos Alcaraz on Friday evening in New York.
“Let’s look at two days,” Gjokovic said after his quarter -final victory over Taylor Fritz. “Good thing about the schedule is now that I have two days without a match, so that helps a lot. I don’t feel very fresh at the moment, but I hope in two days it will be different.”
Gjokovic defeated Alcaraz in their last two meetings. He surpassed the Spaniard in the Gold Medal match at the Paris Olympics last summer, then followed him with another epic victory in this year’s Australian Open. But he knows that the 22-year-old will be a handful, given how well he has played in five rounds, and is worried about how much his body will need to resist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzt6_tdzexc
Serbia has already made history this year, becoming the oldest man who reached the semifinals in all four degrees in a single season. But his extraordinary form has not yet been good enough to prevent the sinner and Alcaraz to earn all three diplomas leading to the open. He played well against Sinner in the Roland-Garros semifinal but could not get a group. At Wimbledon in July, he withdrew injured in his moments of his quarter -final victory over Flavio Cobolli and had little to give a loss of fair placements to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals.
“I definitely not going with a white flag in court,” Gjokovic said. “I don’t think anyone really does when playing them, but especially not me. I put myself in a semifinal of a Grand Slam this year. I have been very stable, more stable in the collision this season, and that is what I said at the beginning of the year, where I would like to do my best tennis and do the best results. And to do well and play well and play well and play quite well and play, continue to be well and make it good enough and play enough.
Gjokovic is waiting for a marathon.
“It won’t get easier, I’m telling you this,” he said. “The next two days are really important to me to really pick up my body in shape and ready to fight five groups if it were necessary. I would simply love it.
And even if Gjokovic passes through Alcaraz, he knows that the work will only be half. A potential final showdown with Sinner, the man who stopped him cold in the last two diplomas, could wait on Sunday with a 25th -big record title.
“Normally I like to play big matches in a big scene,” Gjokovic said. “It’s just that I’m not really sure how the body will feel within the next few days. I will do my best with my team to be suitable for this. It will be too much involved, that is certain. It will not be short.”
