Was Novak Djokovic deliberately being filmed to hand one of his rivals a competitive advantage or is it just an innocent incident being blown out of proportion?
These are the questions being asked following Carlos Alcaraz’s quarter-final win over Holger Rune at Wimbledon. The world No.1 surged into the last four of the grasscourt major for the first time in his career. Speaking to reporters afterward, a new debate was triggered when asked if his father, also called Carlos, was filming Novak Djokovic during one of his practice sessions.
“It is probably true. My father is a huge fan of tennis,” the world No.1 replied. “He doesn’t only watch my matches. I think he gets into the club (Wimbledon) at 11am and he gets out at 10pm after watching matches and watching practices from everyone.”
“Being able to watch Djokovic in real life, it’s probably true he’s filming the sessions.”
From one perspective it can be argued that filming the 23-time Grand Slam champion is no big deal considering the world we live in. Social media has hundreds of videos showing Djokovic in training and some tournaments even stream his hitting sessions live.
However, Aorangi Park is the part of Wimbledon not opened up for public viewing. Earlier this week in his press conference with the Serbian press, Djokovic said he would like more privacy and felt unable to practice certain things due to being watched by others who may pick up on things to give their players an advantage. At the time he was not specifically speaking about Alcaraz but named him as an example.
“Well, the circumstances are such that we don’t have much privacy, although sometimes I would love more privacy because it would allow me to maybe try out certain things and to communicate clearly with my team,” Tennis Majors quoted Djokovic as saying.
“It is a fact that you’re not fully relaxed in practice. You are aware that your rivals are around, that everybody is looking over their shoulders to see what’s going on, what are you working on.
“Every shot is being analyzed, measured, evaluated, so it can influence the next meeting with Alcaraz or whomever.”
Djokovic is unlikely to be the only person to feel like this but he is the first to speak publicly about it. Logistically it would be a nightmare to try and give more players extra space for practice, especially during Grand Slams due to the sheer amount of players in the competition.
Although the most interesting thing about this debate concerns the intentions of Alcaraz’s father. A former player himself who introduced his son to the sport. Will this video or videos be used by Alcaraz and his team in a bid to gain an advantage?
“I don’t think so. I have a lot of videos from Djokovic on every platform. It’s not an advantage for me,” he said.
Djokovic and Alcaraz are on the path to a clash in the Wimbledon final should they both win their semi-final matches. Djokovic faces Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz will play Daniil Medvedev. Their head-to-head currently stands at 1-1.
