New Delhi: Alcaraz's cheeky attempt to play off the net and steal a point from a drop shot went futile. Djokovic prepared himself, fast and clear-headed so as to hit a forehand return and cross court. This was perhaps the defining moment of the Serbian tennis star's temerity in the quarter final of the Australian Open when he was on the court's edge.

Djokovic has been the man under tremendous stress as a year before he did not manage to win a single Grand Slam event. Everyone believed his dominance is fading and beating Margaret Court's 24 slam events was the final hurdle that left him grueling on the court.

But then, Djokovic is a man with a steel's nerves and he has done this the entire length of his career ever since he has fought his contemporaries Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to pip the duo for maximum slams before their respective retirements in 2022 and 2024.

The thirty-seven year old has the younger ones in focus, a few of them might not even have been born or could have been toddlers. He takes on the challenge and has the capacity to wear anybody down on the court before treating the spectators to the quintessential masterpiece of winning the contest in the latter stages. On Tuesday, Alcarez received a stunning setback, even after starting strong by winning the first set.

The currently active competition between them is now 5-3 in favor of the 24-time Grand Slam champion. He has more than maintained his hundred win average over his contests against the Spanish prodigy, rubbing his victory tally against him to three in three matches.

Expectedly, before this “show me the money” quarter-final, Djokovic spent roughly six hours on court in the preceding two sets against Nishesh and Faria and came out on top. In both he lost a set but then went on to win 2 big matches in a row with convincing set wins over Tomas Machac and Jiri Lehecka.

He was embroiled in a 33-shot rally in the fourth where he set the tone with a 4-2 lead before dropping the ball. He was able to get past Nadal. The task of overcoming Alcaraz was no less than accomplishing that. After the match he stated that he would have wanted the quarterfinals to be the final of the competition, however he did confess that he would have crumbled had he lost set number two.