It’s that dream quarterfinal that all tennis fans had been waiting for as world number three Carlos Alcaraz faces the seventh-ranked Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal of the 2025 Australian Open. This match will be played on Tuesday, January 21. Get all the Carlos Alcaraz v Novak Djokovic predictions, betting tips and odds for this encounter in the section below.
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Carlos Alcaraz v Novak Djokovic Head to Head
They have faced off seven times in their career including once at the Olympics last year and Djokovic leads 4-3 on head to head.
Interestingly, the only previous time they played in an outdoor hardcourt competition was in Cincinnati in 2023 and Djokovic had won that final by coming back from being a set down to clinch it in three sets, of which two were tie-breakers.
Their last meeting outside of the Olympics came at the 2024 Wimbledon final where Alcaraz had won in straight sets.
Alcaraz Has No Trouble with Draper
For a while in the first set it looked like Jack Draper could end up troubling Carlos Alcaraz but soon after, a hip problem began to trouble the Briton.
While Draper did begin to move a tad better once the medicines kicked in, he opted to retire from the match after falling two sets to love behind. Alcaraz came through 7-5, 6-1 in a match that went on for an hour and a half.
Alcaraz had an early lead after breaking Draper in the sixth game having earlier missed break-points in both the previous service games. He dropped his serve at 5-3 but rallied to win the set as Draper served to push it in the tie-breaker.
The remainder of the match saw Draper struggle to come through before throwing in the towel.
This follows a four-set win for Alcaraz against Nuno Borges, who had won the third set of that third match in a tie-breaker. So far, that’s the only time the Spaniard has dropped a set in the tournament.
He will face his arch-rival and someone 16 years his senior, Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal.
Djokovic Brushes Lehecka Aside
The crowds wanted Jiri Lehecka to take the match into the fourth set and there were a few in the crowd who seemed to have booed Novak Djokovic too.
All of that didn’t matter the 24-time Grand Slam champion too much and while he refused to give any post-match interview to the host broadcaster for a different grudge, Djokovic would be extremely pleased with his straight-set win over Lehecka.
Djokovic won 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a match lasting two hours and 41 minutes, with a break of serve in each of the three sets punctuating his effort. Lehecka did get one back to push the third set into a tie-breaker but that was where his resistance ended.
In two of his previous rounds, Djokovic had dropped a set apiece to Nishesh Basavareddy and Jamie Faria and looked a tad rusty in his third round win against Tomas Machac. And yet, here he is, having made the quarterfinal at all but two of the the editions of the Australian Open editions since 2008.
The 2024 semifinalist has a tough one here though.
Alcaraz v Djokovic Prediction
It’s never easy to understand the level at which Djokovic is playing in a Grand Slam tournament and use that to predict what he might do in a big-ticket encounter like this. That’s because he can easily up the ante and find another gear to his game.
Instead, the question we would look to answer is if Djokovic’s gear-up could match Alcaraz’s current levels and we believe this could tilt in favour of the Spaniard.
Alcaraz v Djokovic Tips
- Alcaraz to win: 1/2
- Over 3.5 sets in the match: 8/15
