Carlos Alcaraz celebrates historic Nadal-Djokovic double in Madrid

Teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz added the scalp of world number one Novak Djokovic to his stellar clay-court collection by beating the Serbian great in three sets to reach the final of the Mutua Madrid Open.

The Spaniard, who only turned 19 on Thursday, dumped countryman Rafael Nadal out of the tournament despite struggling with an ankle problem throughout Friday’s quarter-final.

And on Saturday evening Alcaraz followed up his shock win with a last-four performance full of resilience and flair to inflict a 6-7 (7) 7-5 7-6 (7) defeat on Djokovic, 34. The Murcian will meet either defending champion Alexander Zverev of Germany or Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final.

After becoming the first player to conquer both Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay-court tournament, Alcaraz said: “It’s spectacular right now. I am very happy. I’m very excited to be able to play these kind of matches, to be able to beat Rafa yesterday, to be able to beat the number one today.

“So I’m super happy. It gives me a lot of confidence for tomorrow’s final.”

Alcaraz broke Djokovic in the first game to make a strong start but the Serbian rallied to clinch the first tie-break.

The 19-year-old Miami Open winner then exploited some weak serving from his opponent to level the match and, after consistently putting pressure on the Djokovic serve in the decider, demonstrated some steely focus beyond his years to close out the match despite being faced down by a 20-time grand slam champion.

It’s spectacular right now. I’m very excited to be able to play these kind of matches, to be able to beat Rafa yesterday, to be able to beat the number one today.- Carlos Alcaraz

The teenager said: “You have to try to go for the match. In those decisive