Carlos Alcaraz will leave Melbourne with his head held high after going down in a thrilling clash with Novak Djokovic. (More Sports News)
🦋Tuesday's titanic quarter-final tussle between two of the world's top players delivered at the Australian Open, with Djokovic prevailing 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4.
ꦚDjokovic not only had to come from a set down, but also had to recover from an injury that led to a medical timeout towards the end of the opening set.
ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚAlcaraz was aiming to become the youngest player to win a career grand slam, but his wait will roll on after losing in the Australian Open's last eight for the second straight year.
💜The 21-year-old, though, is not letting this latest loss to Djokovic get to him.
꧂"We push each other to the limit," Alcaraz said.
💧"I think we've played great points, great rallies. It was really tight in the third and the fourth sets. The whole match, I guess.
♛"I'm just lucky to live this experience. I'm 21 years old. From these matches, I'm getting so much experience about how to deal with everything.
♈"I'm not going to hide. I've done great things in tennis already, but playing against one of the best in the history of our sport, these kind of matches help me a lot in the future to be better.
๊"I'm leaving here Australia with my head up."
෴Djokovic has now beaten Alcaraz five times, including in their last two meetings.
🍬Asked what he had learned from his run to the last eight in Melbourne, Alcaraz added: "Something that I learned playing in grand slams is I have to save energy.
💜"There have been some moments, some matches that I didn't save energy, pumping myself, playing with the crowd, screaming 'Vamos' every time. I'm 100%.
ไ"I struggled physically because of that. So I learned to save energy during the match, especially these kind of matches, which are really physically demanding.
ဣ"I'm going to say I think I did great, but probably I could do it a little bit more in specific moments. In the grand slams, I prefer to be calmer."
