Holger Rune of Denmark celebrates victory in opposition to Novak Djokovic of Serbia of their Men’s Singles quarter-final match on day ten of Internazionali BNL D’Italia 2023 at Foro Italico on May 17, 2023 in Rome, Italy
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Novak Djokovic mentioned the lengthy awaited “shift of generations” has lastly come to males’s tennis after the world primary misplaced to 20-year-old Dane Holger Rune within the Italian Open quarterfinals.
The ‘Big Three’ of Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer have dominated the ATP Tour for almost twenty years however age and damage have been catching up with them in recent times.
Top seed Djokovic’s 6-2 4-6 6-2 defeat by Rune on Wednesday signifies that for the primary time in 19 years neither the Serb nor the injured Nadal will play within the Rome remaining.
Djokovic, who has now misplaced two in a row to Rune, mentioned the following generation of gamers led by world quantity two Carlos Alcaraz is sort of a breath of contemporary air for the game.
“A new generation is here already,” Djokovic advised reporters. “Alcaraz is number one in the world from Monday, obviously he’s playing amazing tennis. I think it’s also good for our sport that we have new faces, new guys coming up.
“We’ve been saying this for years that we are able to count on that second to return when you’ve a sort of shift of generations.
“I’m personally still trying to hang in there with all of them. I still have the hunger to keep going. Let’s see how far I’m going to play.”
Nadal and Djokovic share the report for many males’s Grand Slams with 22 titles every, whereas Federer received 20 earlier than retiring final 12 months, however the gruelling Tour is taking a heavy toll on their our bodies.
Nadal has not performed since injuring his hip on the Australian Open in January and has missed the claycourt swing forward of the French Open, the place he’s a 14-times champion.
Djokovic, who battled an elbow damage just lately, referred to as for the physio throughout his match in opposition to Rune and took a painkiller to get him by it.
When requested if Roland Garros could be essentially the most open match in years, Djokovic smiled and mentioned: “It depends if Nadal plays or not.
“But subsequent to him Alcaraz, Rune – these guys are proper there in competition, a number of the largest favourites to win the title.”
