Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic in middle of Wimbledon ‘Spygate’ scandal
There’s a new controversy at Wimbledon with a familiar tagline: “Spygate.”
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz admitted Wednesday that his dad likely was recording Novak Djokovic’s training at Wimbledon after a report surfaced from Serbian outlet b92 that Alcaraz’s father “closely followed the events at Djokovic’s training” and was “at one point recording everything that was happening.”
Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish phenom, is on track to face Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz insisted there was nothing fishy going on with his father’s filming.
“My father is a huge fan of tennis,” he said. “He doesn’t only watch my matches. I think he gets into the club at 11 a.m., gets out at 10 p.m., watching matches, watching practice from everyone, being able to watch Djokovic in real life, yeah, probably it is true he’s filmed the sessions.”
The reigning U.S. Open champion said he doesn’t think film from those practice sessions would play a role during a potential matchup with the Serbian tennis legend, who owns the men’s tennis record with 23 major titles.
“I don’t think so,” he said, smiling. “I mean, I have a lot of videos from Djokovic on every platform. I think it’s not an advantage for me.”
The filming saga, dubbed “Spygate” by the British press, recycling the name of the infamous NFL scandal involving Bill Belichick’s Patriots, picked up steam when Djokovic, 36, asked during his press conference for more privacy.
“The circumstances are such that we don’t have privacy in training, although sometimes I would like to have more privacy,” Djokovic said. “Then it gives me more opportunities to try some things, to communicate more clearly with my team.
“The fact is that you are not completely relaxed in training. You know your rivals are there, you know everyone is looking over your shoulder at what’s going on, what you’re working on. Every shot is measured, evaluated and assessed.
“That, through some analysis, affects the eventual meeting with Alcaraz or anyone. Concentration is required. For me, training is like a match. I bring that intensity to training as well.”
In Friday’s semifinals, Alcaraz is set to face world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev, and Djokovic will play Italian No. 8 seed Jannik Sinner.
A Djokovic-Alcaraz final would be a rematch of last month’s French Open semifinal in which Djokovic prevailed over his younger opponent after Alcaraz began cramping in the third set due to the stress of the superstar showdown.
