Tennis
Australian
Open
Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in four sets — 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 — in the 2026 Australian Open men's singles final to complete the career Grand Slam.
10-time Australian Open champion Djokovic made a lightning-fast start and took the first set in just 33 minutes, but his 22-year-old opponent soon responded.
Alcaraz reeled off the second set in 37 minutes and then took the third to leave himself on track for his first title in Melbourne. Djokovic battled valiantly and the fourth set looked to be headed for a tiebreak, but the Spaniard broke him in the 12th game.
Alcaraz becomes the youngest man to achieve the career Grand Slam having won all four of major titles.
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Australian Open final: Carlos Alcaraz beats Novak Djokovic for career Grand Slam
It it such a tease that after such a feast of exciting Grand Slam tennis, we have to wait another three months for the next offering.
I don’t mean to disregard all the tournaments in between, of course! But nothing gets the juices flowing like the biggest tournaments — the same is true in every sport.
The benefit of that long wait is we get two Grand Slams almost back to back, with the best players in the world heading to Roland Garros for the French Open before London and Wimbledon awaits three weeks later.
Then it’s to the Big Apple for the U.S. Open in the fall. Here are the 2026 Grand Slam dates …
Goodbye to you, AO. It has been a blast — and we will now forgive you for those lukewarm first two weeks where almost everyone went through as planned.
Bar Coco Gauff, anyway.
It’s a little hard to find words in the immediate aftermath of such a historic match. We wondered whether we’d get the final this clash of generations deserved or if we’d see a shellacking of an exhausted Novak Djokovic.
In the end, we got both.
Djokovic offered a searing reminder of his greatness in the first set. He blew Carlos Alcaraz off the court; it wasn’t close. That set was so decisive it’ll be used in future barbershop arguments for why Djokovic’s peak is higher than Alcaraz’s, even though Alcaraz eventually won the match.
But that set seemed to drain the last of Djokovic’s reserves — and no wonder, given the five excruciating sets he played against Jannik Sinner on Friday. He lost the second without a fight, then the vital third after a drawn-out service game.
Djokovic returned for the fourth set. His serve flayed numerous break points early and he stayed afloat long enough to give Alcaraz an almighty scare in the ninth game.
On the first point of the final game, Alcaraz soaked up Djokovic’s offense and returned it with his own, until a weary Novak found the net. That exhausted the last dregs of gas in the old legend’s tank, and the young legend fell to the ground in ecstasy four points later.
This wasn’t an epic but in hindsight, it didn’t have to be. The moments of mastery, competitive tension, and emotion from two great athletes were more than enough.
Fair play to these three superstars. They have been recording late, night after night, to bring you recaps, analysis, previews and opinions on the events taking place throughout this Australian Open in Melbourne via The Tennis Podcast.
David Law, Catherine Whitaker and Matt Roberts are in the middle of recording one more show — I took this just before they were about to start — as they wrap up tonight’s slice of tennis history.
You can hear that edition on your chosen podcast player right here once it’s live.
And if you don’t want to wait for their fresh offering, just click on that same link and take in one of their previous shows from the opening major of the year.
Fitting then, considering my last post, that Rod Laver — the man whom the main court in Melbourne is named after — is the only man to have achieved the Calendar Slam since the Open Era began in 1968.
The Australian’s magic 12 months came in 1969. He is also one of two men to achieve the feat before that, in 1962; the other being Don Budge in 1938.
Since Laver did it, only three players have made it to all four finals in the same year — never mind winning them:
Carlos Alcaraz will be confident he can match those two great players and given he has won seven of his eight major finals, definitely has a chance of emulating Laver.
Murmurs across the media pack still working away here at Melbourne Park that this was actually a pretty reasonable finishing time.
It’s now a question of either pulling an all-nighter before flying home to the England, the U.S. or wherever — or grabbing a bit of sleep and your slightly later flight.
Carlos Alcaraz’s media duties are not complete just yet.
I've gone and spotted him on a random Melbourne Park balcony! He’s still clutching the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, of course.
Michael Sternberg has been in touch via email claiming that a true Grand Slam is a player winning all four majors in the same year.
He isn’t the first — and won’t be the last — person to argue that, so I’ll throw it forward.
What chance does Carlos Alcaraz have of winning all four majors in 2026?
He has won the other three before, so he certainly has a chance. He and Jannik Sinner contested the finals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows last year so again, there’s a good chance he’ll get the three finals this year.
I’m sure there is a ginger-haired young Italian man sat somewhere already plotting how he can beat Alcaraz in Paris in May …
Before Alcaraz, it was Novak Djokovic sitting in the same seat — and it’s testament to his legendary competitive spirit that he came across as very disappointed.
He had reason to be all smiles. He’d exceeded expectations by beating Jannik Sinner and backed it up by taking a set from Alcaraz, demonstrating a mastery of tennis in those 45 minutes that went beyond even what he showed in the semifinal.
Djokovic seemed dispirited and regretful, like he felt he should have done better. He wouldn’t say why his level dipped dramatically after the first set — I have to guess exhaustion; he seemed to unintentionally imply he was injured, in his effort to say nothing that would take away from Alcaraz’s victory — but was very disappointed by it.
And given what Djokovic has achieved, that is entirely fair. I only hope once he digests the loss, he can fully appreciate the way he enhanced a legacy that seemed beyond bettering.
An equal number of questions in Spanish for Carlos Alcaraz to answer and with that, he smiles his way back out of the auditorium.
There will be a few more duties for him to perform tonight, but they will start becoming a lot more intimate from here — now the majority of the media has been dealt with.
It’s going to be a kangaroo tattoo on a leg for Carlos Alcaraz, to mark his latest major breakthrough.
He has three other tattoos on his limbs to celebrate his previous Grand Slam landmarks:
Apparently the only consideration now is which leg the roo will be inked on.
On the topic of Father Time, it was always going to be tough for Novak Djokovic to go toe-to-toe with a man who had not even been born when he started his professional career.
Carlos Alcaraz is 15 years and 349 days younger than the Serbian — the biggest age gap between men’s Australian Open finalists in the Open Era.
A great question of Carlos Alcaraz — asking what will motivate him and fire him up from here, now he has achieved history that involves all four major titles.
The answer is brief:
💬 “I hate to lose! That’s my motivation.”
And yes, he said it with a smile — as well as big glint in his eye.
When Novak Djokovic raced into that first-set lead, his fans around the world must have started dreaming of him lifting his 25th Grand Slam title.
But it was always going to be an almighty task to beat Carlos Alcaraz in a best-of-five match, and the 16-year age gap eventually told in Melbourne.
Djokovic’s record in Grand Slam finals after winning the opening set has now dropped to 16-4. The last time the Serbian won the first set of a Grand Slam final and lost was at Wimbledon in 2023 when he was beaten by … Carlos Alcaraz.
Into the main media conference auditorium at the Centrepiece building in Melbourne Park, steps Carlos Alcaraz.
He is beaming, and he goes straight for a toast with the waiting flute of champagne and a room full of journalists …
Which prompts Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley to tell him to hold up, as that’s his job.
Cue laughs. Many laughs.
Not quite a record that Carlos Alcaraz holds on his own, but the Spaniard has just gone level with Bjorn Borg with the most major titles before turning 23 years old.
He won't be able to break that one as he will have turned 23 by the time he arrives in Paris for Roland Garros, but it is so hard to imagine anyone drawing level with him and Borg in the future.
On the camera before leaving Rod Laver Arena, Carlos Alcaraz wrote:
“Job finished. 4/4 complete.”
Something tells me the job isn't finished, Carlos…
We will find out whether Carlos Alcaraz not fully unloading on his forehand was physical, tactical, or a mix — but the way he fully embraced being the more passive player after Novak Djokovic’s nuclear first set and subtly shifted that strategy through the next three, was majestic.
There are now just eight men in the Open Era to have won more Grand Slam titles than Carlos Alcaraz.
How many do you think the 22-year-old can finish his career on?