Carlos Alcaraz has kept his dreams of a career Grand Slam alive by reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Top seed Alcaraz will take on Australian ace Alex de Minaur, who is the sixth seed at his home Grand Slam.
The pair have met five times on the ATP Tour so far ahead of their next match, with Alcaraz having won all five.
The Spanish superstar is the strong favorite to come out on top, although the Australian Open fans will be backing his opponent.
Carlos Alcaraz loves padel but is not always allowed to play
Ahead of the match, Alcaraz has been analysing De Minaur, although the world number one was also tasked with discussing the fast-growing sports of padel and pickleball.
He said: “Well, I think to see new sports growing up, I think is great. But for example, for me, that padel, it’s more European, let’s say, so I just love watching the padel, and sometimes I just try to play as much as I can. Sometimes I’m not allowed to, but I love playing.
“And the pickleball, I don’t watch it that much, and I don’t play it that much, because I think it hasn’t been in Europe yet, which they are approaching, you know, other countries or other parts of the world.
“But I have played a few times, and for me, it’s just fun. It’s going to be interesting how it’s going to impact, you know, the pickle, for example, in Europe or other places in the world, but I think the padel is getting huge.”
Alcaraz is also an avid golfer, and recently played with tennis legend Roger Federer, who returned to the Australian Open this year to play an exhibition before taking in some action from the stands.
The message Novak Djokovic sent to Carlos Alcaraz about copying his serve
Alcaraz was unsurprisingly in high spirits following his latest win, after which he also discussed similarities between his serve and Novak Djokovic’s.
Tennis legend Jim Courier interviewed the Spaniard on court, and asked him if he’d heard Djokovic’s humorous comments about deserving money for inspiring him in that area.
Alcaraz commented: “Yeah, I heard that. I have the contract over there, but I haven’t seen him yet.
“It was funny because it was in the preseason, and yeah some videos came up with the movement. To be honest I wasn’t aware that it was really similar to Nole’s serve.
“But I just woke up one day, I took out my phone and I had a Djokovic message like, ‘Alright, you have to pay me for the serve before the season starts’.
“It was fun. I mean these kinds of things in the locker room I think are fun to share with another player.”
Intriguingly, the two seemingly similar servers could come up against each other at the Australian Open, but only in the final.
And it is a matchup that could favor the Serbian, who has a 5-4 win-loss record over the Spaniard at this moment in time.
READ MORE: Iva Jovic issues her hope for the Australian Open involving Novak Djokovic
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