It's Hard To Imagine Carlos Alcaraz Was Actually Mocking Novak Djokovic Injury During Australian Open Loss

The Australian Open quarterfinal matchup between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic did not disappoint. When a 21-year-old prodigy with four Grand Slam titles already to his name takes on arguably the greatest to ever do it, fireworks tend to pop off, and that they did in Melbourne Park on Tuesday.

While Father Time has been mighty kind to the 37-year-old Djokovic, Father Time is still undefeated and injuries have been popping up relatively frequently with the 24-time Grand Slam winner in recent years and the injury bug bit him early on against Alcaraz.

Less than an hour into the match and with things knotted at 4-4 in the opening set, Djokovic required a medical timeout for a suspected groin injury. Alcaraz went on to break Djokovic's service and went on to win the first set.

It felt as if Alcaraz was in the driver's seat, but Djokovic reminded the world he is a freak of nature and won the next three sets to punch his ticket to the semifinals.

The tennis being played throughout the match was on a different level and had fans around the world glued to the action, but some off-court antics from Alcaraz garnered attention as well.

The moment came after Djokovic won the third set of the match with Alcaraz limping and grabbing his leg acting as if he was injured. The Spaniard has a history of cramping, but the sarcastic grabbing of the legs was a new one, and came across as if he was mocking The Joker.

ESPN commentator Christoper Eubanks claimed on the broadcast that Alcaraz was simply acting like Djokovic, but the moment is up for interpretation.

With Djokovic having taken a medical timeout only to return to rattle off three straight sets to win the match got the conspiracy theories rolling that he took the break to simply change the momentum. If that was his strategy, well, it's pretty clear that it worked.

As for the thought that Alcaraz was disrespectfully mocking Djokovic while limping around after losing the third set, it's nearly impossible to imagine that actually being the case. The two players have the utmost respect for each other, and while Alcaraz was likely and understandably frustrated in the moment, him mocking one of the players he's long looked up to is hard to believe.