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Novak Djokovic embraces pantomime villain act with blockbuster Alcaraz showdown looming
Novak Djokovic embraces pantomime villain act with blockbuster Alcaraz showdown looming
Novak Djokovic baited the Roland Garros crowd again on Sunday, as he eased into the last 16. But this time, by contrast with his ill-tempered showing in the previous round, he did it with a sense of humor.
Djokovic was briefly booed by the fans during the first set of his comfortable 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas. The barracking came as he was beaten by a flashing backhand winner and he responded by holding out his arms towards his support team in a gesture of exasperation.
But the mood of these notoriously mercurial Parisian spectators would turn on a sixpence, with the jeers suddenly becoming cheers.
Just two points later, Djokovic pulled off one of the feats of escapology that he is famous for, chipping back a series of Varillas attacks until his opponent yielded. Now he held his hand up to his ear, before waving at the crowd as if to say – Delia Smith-style – “Let’s be ‘avin you!
To be clear, he was very much in pantomime-villain mode and wore a broad grin rather than the glare we had seen on Friday.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Djokovic played down his previous criticisms of the local spectators, and described the crowd – which chanted his name during his on-court interview – as “great”.
“I didn’t say [on Friday] that the crowd is disrespectful, that’s not true,” explained Djokovic, whose complaints after his previous win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had instead been aimed at certain individuals “who love to boo every single thing you do”.
Novak Djokovic embraces pantomime villain act
“[Today] I thought they were great, especially in the end. They gave me a very nice chanting and support. As a player, you always want to receive that love from the crowd.”
Varillas is a total newbie at this level, having only played in the main draws of two previous slams and losing in the first round both times. As such, he was a much more comfortable opponent for Djokovic than Davidovich Fokina, which probably explains the difference in Djokovic’s demeanor.
On Friday, Djokovic had roared aggressively at the fans on seizing the key second set – a response he later justified because “99 percent of the time I will stay quiet [but] sometimes I will oppose that because I feel when somebody is disrespectful, he or she deserves to have an answer.”
This time, Djokovic needed only 1hr 57min to overcome Varillas, maintaining his perfect record of dropping no sets in the tournament. His reward was a 17th visit to the French Open quarter-finals, which – amazingly – is one more than the “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal has managed.
This result also left Djokovic tantalizingly close to a first best-of-five-set meeting with Carlos Alcaraz, the man he has been exchanging the world No1 ranking with for the past nine months.
This would be a big moment for the sport because the two biggest beasts of the men’s tour (at least, since Nadal began his injury-related decline) have never actually faced each other during that time. Indeed, they have only ever shared a match court on one occasion. That came in Madrid 14 months ago and delivered a close and thrilling victory for Alcaraz.
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As it happens, Alcaraz won through on Sunday by the same scoreline as Djokovic – the only difference being that he was facing an opponent with a real pedigree on this surface. Lorenzo Musetti, the 17th seed from Italy, might have despatched British No1 Cameron Norrie in ruthless style on Friday, but he was completely outclassed by Alcaraz in 2hr 8min.
Now both these heavy hitters need to come through their quarter-finals to set up that dream match on Friday. All the evidence suggests that it will decide the eventual champion, as the early exits of Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner have left the bottom half of this draw looking short on clout.
Djokovic was asked on Sunday whether he ever looks beyond his next opponent – in this case, the burly Russian Karen Khachanov – to a match further down the line. “You always follow the top guys in your half or whatever,” he replied. “Of course, you’re looking, you’re analyzing everyone’s game.”
So far, statistics suggest that Djokovic and Alcaraz stand well clear of the pack. After four rounds, they are respectively winning 46 and 54 percent of their opponent’s service games – both of which are outrageously high figures for the men’s tour.
The only other man lighting up the leaderboards after week one is an unexpected name: Chile’s Nicolas Jarry, who is due to play last year’s runner-up Casper Ruud on Monday. Having played three rounds, the 6ft 6in Jarry has dropped serve only three times – an intriguing anomaly at an event where most male players are broken at least once per set.
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‘It won’t last forever’ – Max Verstappen warned about Red Bull downfall with Lewis Hamilton
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has warned that, while Max Verstappen is the current dominant force in Formula 1, “all good things come to an end.”
Verstappen has won 21 of the last 23 races and has broken the record for number of victories in a calendar year in each of the last two seasons, with 15 in 2022 and 19 last season, and has already taken to the top step four times out of five in 2024.
Max Verstappen dominance warning: ‘It won’t last forever’
Formula 1 can often be characterised by eras of driver and team dominance in the sport, with the likes of McLaren and Williams holding the sport under their control in the 1980s and ’90s, before Ferrari and Michael Schumacher were the outright force in the early 2000s, and Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel won four title doubles in a row before Mercedes took charge in the turbo hybrid era.
The switch to ground effect aerodynamics has seen Red Bull surge to the top once again, particularly in Verstappen’s hands, which has left 2021 title rival and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton without a race win in 50 rounds.
Steiner made this point in comparing Verstappen’s success to Hamilton’s current barren run by his standards, but is also wary of the fact that these eras have a habit of ending abruptly.
“Red Bull and Max Verstappen are obviously doing a fantastic job right now. They are dominating,” Steiner wrote in a pre-Miami column for Formula1.com.
“I really respect Sergio Perez, he’s a very good driver – but he can’t get near Max right now. Max is on a different planet.
“He is already one of the greatest ever in his era, like Lewis Hamilton was a few years ago.
“When you’re on a wave like this, you have the confidence, you’re happy with life and nothing goes wrong.
“But all good things come to an end. It won’t last forever – just look at Lewis right now.
“It’s no surprise Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is interested in signing Max. Will Max leave Red Bull? He is in a good place.”
The next regulation reset in Formula 1 is coming in 2026, with the proposed power units bringing about a change in power to make the cars a 50/50 split between combustion and electric power in the hybrid engines, along with a switch to sustainable fuel.
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Alex Bowman’s angry radio exchange that caused trouble with Kyle Larson at Dover decoded by Corey
Alex Bowman’s angry radio exchange that caused trouble with Kyle Larson at Dover decoded by Corey
Alex Bowman had a decent day in Dover with a top-10 finish. But it didn’t come without some drama as Bowman and his spotter, Kevin Hamlin, exchanged some fiery words at one point in the race. Talking about this exchange between Bowman and his spotter, as well as the preceding incident between Bowman and Kyle Larson, Corey LaJoie took a shot at decoding the whole situation.
Speaking on his podcast Stacking Pennies, LaJoie discussed what happened between the two Hendrick drivers and the subsequent radio exchange between Bowman and his spotter.
“There was a little bit of beef apparently between the #48 and the #5. The #48 was having a good run up there in top 5,” LaJoie said.
The exchange, in the eyes of Ryan ‘Skip’ Flores, the co-host of Stacking Pennies, was simply Bowman being honest with the whole situation.
“He was mad at the #5 car air blocking him. The #5 was running for the stage win I believe. He’s mad at the #5 air blocking and he’s ‘expletive’ about it and (Kevin) Hamlin says go up there and pass him, he’s not gonna give it to you. And then he tried to pep talk him and Alex told him shove it,” Flores said.
In the end, LaJoie wrapped it up by claiming that what happened between Bowman and Larson and Bowman and his spotter was simply part of racing.
“Hey, it’s a very high-pressure situation. You feel like you’re in there riding around. You’d think your teammate of all people would air block you less, but hey, it’s racing man,” LaJoie said.
Speaking after the race, Alex Bowman was asked about his radio exchange with spotter Kevin Hamlin. During the race, Bowman made a sly remark on Larson, after which he received an earful from his spotter.
“He’s not gonna pull over for you. You’ve gotta go ‘expletive’ earn it, let’s go. #5 elbows up, let’s go. Dudes are gonna give you ‘expletive’ all day, you’ve just taken, you’ve done awesome, drive like an
‘expletive’ the rest of the race, stay locked in, *expletive* them all let’s
go,” Kevin Hamlin told his driver. [00:12]
In response, Bowman asked his spotter to just let him focus on the race. After the race, when asked about his exchange with Kevin, Alex Bowman simply refused to elaborate on it.
“No. I don’t have any clickbait for you there, buddy,” he said (via Frontstretch).
As for his race result, Bowman opined that it wasn’t “the greatest” but they’ll move on to the next one.
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NASCAR Issues: Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson are at again
Though Hendrick Motorsports couldn’t figure out a way to win in Dover on Sunday, it had a remarkable race day. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott both finished inside the top-5 after starting from outside the top-20. At the end of the 400 laps on the Monster Mile, Larson retained his lead at the top of the points table and Elliott sat third.
The race began for Larson from 21st place in the #5 Chevrolet Camaro. Refusing to idle around, he found his way into the top 10 as early as Lap 53. He broke into the top 5 on Lap 107 and finished Stage 1 in 5th place. Crew Chief Cliff Daniels made the call to bring Larson to the pit ahead of most others and kickstarted a play that worked out splendidly.
Larson ended up winning Stage 2. From there, a long cat and mouse game went down between him and Denny Hamlin. Courtesy of quicker pit stops, better restarts, and the aero-block advantage, Hamlin managed to pull ahead and stay there. “I was trying all sorts of different angles and speeds. Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough to do anything,” Larson said after the race.
Ultimately, he finished as the runner-up, a mere 0.256 seconds behind Hamlin. The result was his second runner-up finish of the year. He led 39 laps throughout the race bringing his 2024 total to 570, highest in the grid. Putting up an almost equal caliber of performance from behind the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro was Chase Elliott.
The 2020 Cup Series champion started his campaign from further behind Larson, in 29th place. He cut open the top-10 on Lap 70 and finished Stage 1 in 9th place. Despite having an early scare when his car hit the wall, the run continued as he maintained a top-10 spot throughout Stage 2. He finished the stage in 5th place after passing Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch, the same spot in which he finished his race.
How did William Byron and Alex Bowman fare in Dover?
Byron started his race in 3rd place. After leading for a brief while in Stage 1, he finished in 2nd place. Midway through Stage 2, he complained of feeling “a little too tight center of (turns) three and four.” Subsequently, he was pitted on Lap 183. Tragedy struck as his car fell off the jack before the stop was complete and he lost significant time on the road.
In the final stage, he got caught in a multi-car incident involving Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, and Zane Smith. The chaos ended his day and he finished in 33rd place. The result ended his five-race top-10 streak. Alex Bowman had a better day than Byron. He started the race from 9th position and finished 8th. He displayed strong speed midway through the race but the balance on his car began taking a hit towards race end.
“It was still a good points day and a step in the right direction,” he said after his fourth straight top-10 finish in Dover. “It’s a little more consistent than we’ve seen, so hopefully we can keep plugging away at it.” The next event on the schedule for Rick Hendrick’s men is at the Kansas Speedway. The 12th race of the ongoing season will go down on May 5.
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