The 2022 US Open title match between Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud was the youngest New York final by combined age since 1990, when a 19-year-old Pete Sampras beat a 20-year-old Andre Agassi to win his first major crown. Alcaraz was also 19 when he defeated Ruud, then 23, to win his maiden Grand Slam title and clinch a debut atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

The Spaniard will face an even younger opponent on Wednesday in his first Wimbledon quarter-final. Both he and Holger Rune are now 20, with the Top 10 stars born a week apart: Rune on 23 April 2003 and Alcaraz on 5 May.

The pair is only slightly older than Sampras and Agassi were when they met in New York in 1990. And while the American legends combined to win 22 Grand Slam singles titles and 28 ATP Masters 1000s, Alcaraz and Rune could yet eclipse their success.

While Sampras and Agassi had little in common as players apart from their nationalities, Alcaraz and Rune are cut from a similar cloth. Both can dominate from all parts of the court but are most dangerous from the baseline. Alcaraz does his damage with an unbridled sense of joy, while the fiery Rune wields a more steely disposition — but both are fearless no matter the opposition or the occasion.

Their Wednesday meeting will be the first Wimbledon quarter-final between two players under 21 in the Open Era.

“The young guys reaching their dreams,” Alcaraz said of the showdown, speaking on Monday after a four-set win against Matteo Berrettini. “Coming here and playing a quarter-final together is something great for tennis. Of course with Holger, we [played] at lots of tournaments when we were 12 years old. We grew up together, passing all the categories, playing great tournaments, so playing a quarter-final at a Grand Slam against him is something great and that I am going to enjoy.”

Rune shared similar sentiments after advancing to his first Wimbeldon quarter-final with a win against Grigor Dimitrov: “It’s great. It’s a good feeling. It shows that the young players are doing a great job,” he said, discussing the under-21 affair. “To be able to play a quarter-final against a player that is your same age, at the top of the rankings, feels amazing. I’m really looking forward to that match.

“I even looked at it when I was in the first round. I couldn’t really afford to look at it because there were so many matches before this would eventually happen. Now we’re here so I’m really pumped and excited for it.”

Holger Rune” />
Photo by Corinne Dubreuil.

Two of today’s brightest young stars, not just on the ATP Tour but across the sports landscape, Alcaraz and Rune have both excelled on the biggest stages early in their careers. The Spaniard owns four ATP Masters 1000 titles in addition to his US Open triumph, while Rune won his maiden Masters 1000 last November in Paris — beating five Top 10 opponents, including Alcaraz, along the way (Alcaraz retired with an abdominal injury after Rune built a 6-3, 6-6 lead in the quarter-finals).

Before their two tour-level meetings, the first of which came at the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals, the friends played at least one tournament on the same side of the net in junior doubles. Rune played the backhand side, with Alcaraz singling out that shot on Monday as the one he would borrow from the Dane. Rune said he would take Alcaraz’s forehand drop shot, a world-beating weapon made all the more potent by the soft bounces on the Wimbledon lawns.

Holger Rune, Carlos Alcaraz” />
Rune and Alcaraz at the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals. Photo by Peter Staples/ATP Tour.

One of the promotional taglines for the Next Gen ATP Finals, won by Alcaraz in 2021, is “See the future!” For Alcaraz and Rune, the future is now.

“I stay in the moment and I’m really, really eager to improve,” Rune said of his rapid rise in the men’s game. “To be honest, it doesn’t feel like I’m going really fast. But also, you see Alcaraz, he’s doing even better than me. It’s in a different way.

“I feel like I’m pushing every day. Of course, I admire the good results I make, but I have really high ambitions. I always search for more.”

“It ain’t happening!”

Novak Djokovic knows a target is on his back at this year’s Wimbledon, where he is chasing a record-extending 24th major title. Following Tuesday’s quarter-final victory against Andrey Rublev, the Serbian delivered a punchline, “It ain’t happening!” in his on-court interview, when asked about his fellow competitors aim to stop his run at the season’s third major.

The World No. 2 doubled down on his statement in his post-match press conference.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but of course I would consider myself the favourite,” Djokovic said. “Judging with the results I had in my career here, previous four occasions of Wimbledon that I won, I do consider [myself] the favourite.”

Djokovic will next compete in his 46th major semi-final Friday against Italian Jannik Sinner. It will be the 21-year-old’s maiden major semi-final, but he will have reason to believe he can be the one to upset the seven-time champion. Last year, Sinner led Djokovic two-sets-to-love at Wimbledon before the Belgrade-native stormed back to win.

Djokovic, who could tie Roger Federer at eight Wimbledon crowns this fortnight, has not lost on Centre Court since the 2013 final. Djokovic is on a 33-match winning streak at The All England Club, dating back to his quarter-final retirement in 2017. The last time Djokovic lost a completed match at Wimbledon was in 2016, when he fell to Sam Querrey in the third round.

Although the Serbian has enjoyed great success at The Championships, not every year is the same. The 94-time tour-level titlist stated that he is not sliding on the grass as much this year.

“I think as the tournament goes on, I think us players, we feel more comfortable moving on the grass. So for some of us, like Sinner, for example, and [Carlos] Alcaraz, they like to slide. I think you become more comfortable going for the slide,” Djokovic said. “Maybe at the beginning you feel like walking on eggs a little bit because the grass is also more slippery at the beginning, particularly if you play indoors under the roof.

“I think that this is the least that I was sliding on grass ever, to be honest. Whether that’s conscious or unconscious, I’m not really sure. I’m still yet trying to figure out. Sometimes sliding is not the best option on grass. Sometimes it is. It just depends on the ball and the situation.”

One way or another, Djokovic has made all the right adjustments this fortnight. After surviving a serving barrage from Hubert Hurkacz across two days in the fourth round, Djokovic was forced to rally from a set down Tuesday against Rublev. The second seed extended his 4-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head series lead against Rublev, who Djokovic has beaten three consecutive times, including at this year’s Australian Open. But the Serbian feels that the World No. 7 brought a new level to SW19.

“It was like a dogfight,” Djokovic said. “At some points of the match were so long and exhausting. Those games at the end of the third set [is] where basically the match was decided. I felt like huge relief when I won the third set, and in the fourth again made the crucial break and held my nerves till the end. For sure the best quality tennis Rublev has played that I have faced him in the previous matches in Grand Slams.”

There was good news and bad news for Andrey Rublev on Tuesday at Wimbledon. The good news was that he felt prepared for his first quarter-final at The Championships. The bad news was that he faced seven-time champion Novak Djokovic.

Rublev won the first set, but Djokovic battled back for a four-set victory for a place in the semi-finals.

“I feel like he’s playing better and better comparing our matches. I think today I was, for the first time, ready enough to play [a] good match against him,” The previous matches mentally I was not ready at all. Even the match that I beat him in Serbia, I was just lucky. I don’t know, he was just not playing [well]. On top of that, he was tired in [the] end of the match. It’s not because of my game or something.”

Djokovic now leads Rublev 4-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with two of those triumphs coming in major quarter-finals this year (they also met at the Australian Open). Djokovic converted five of his 12 break points, while Rublev managed to capitalise on only one of eight.

“I think today was the first time that I was ready to play, and I was there, and I had these little chances that in the end I didn’t make them. He made them,” Rublev said. “That’s why he’s the Novak, one of the greatest players in history.”

The seventh seed did not point to a groundstroke or tactic that the 23-time major winner used against him. Instead, he was impressed by Djokovic’s focus.

“These things [are] impressive, a lot. That’s why he’s the greatest player,” Rublev said. “In the end those moments are [what] count. [It] doesn’t matter how you hit. When you’re winning or when you’re losing, it matters in those moments. Those moments are the real tennis.”

Despite the loss, Rublev is seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as he tries to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fourth consecutive year. The 25-year-old was eager to push even further and reach his first major semi-final (0-8 in quarter-finals), but he will hope to leave London with lessons learned to help him when he is next in such a position.

“Of course I was nervous. It’s normal when you go to play the player that never — I don’t know, not never — but didn’t lose for a long time. He’s on grass playing [the] best tennis ever,” Rublev said. “Of course you feel nervous because I have also ambitions. I want to go as deep as possible. Of course I was tight. But, like I said, I hope I realise one good thing, I hope I realise two and a half weeks ago one good thing. I hope that give me a little bit improvement in [the] mental part.

“We’ll see. We’ll see in the second part of the season if I really realise it or not.”

After picking up their first title of the season on the grass of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, can Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski transfer their success for their biggest team title at Wimbledon?

The top seeds, who have not dropped a set all tournament, advanced to the quarter-finals Tuesday after defeating Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson 6-3, 7-6(3) in one hour, 36 minutes. The Dutch-British duo fended off six of seven break points faced to reach the last eight.

Aiming for their first major semi-final of the season, Koolhof and Skupski will next meet Ariel Behar and Adam Pavlasek, who upset ninth seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

In other men’s doubles action, sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden survived David Pel and Reese Stalder 7-5, 4-6 7-6(5). The Indian-Australian pair Bopanna and Ebden have earned two trophies this season, triumphing in Doha and Indian Wells. Last year, Ebden teamed with countryman Purcell to win their maiden major title at The All England Club.

The 13th seeds Jamie Murray and Michael Venus ousted fourth seeds Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 6-4, 6-3. The 10th seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz downed fifth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.