Breaking News: Tennis legend Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaras speak to leave tennis game due to………..

Thousands of people chanted “No-lay!” for the legendary Djokovic, who was playing here for the first time since 2019, and who had been welcomed back to the United States enthusiastically. Thousands of others countered with chants of “Vamos Carlos!” for the galvanizing new superstar Alcaraz, who had proclaimed his love for Cincinnati and its fans all week.

By the time the two men reached a third-set tiebreaker, after 8:00 P.M., the chants had blended into one titanic, chaotic, incomprehensible roar. Which was fitting, because by then the match wasn’t about one man or the other. It was about the two best players in the world rising to the occasion against each other, again. Whoever you were rooting for, you had to appreciate the moment, and the chance to experience it.

“Ups and downs, highs and lows, incredible points, poor games, heat strokes,” Djokovic said afterward, in awe of what he had just survived. “One of the toughest matches and most exciting matches I’ve ever been a part of, at any level, against any opponent.”

For the first hour and a half, though, it had looked more like a bust than a classic in the making. The heat took an early toll on the 36-year-old Djokovic, who squandered a 4-2 lead in the first set and trudged off for a prolonged bathroom break after losing it 7-5.

The locker-room time didn’t help him. In the second set, he sat down heavily on a changeover, wrapped an ice towel around his head, and took a pill from the tour medics. Instead of a repeat of their Wimbledon epic, this match looked like their Roland Garros semifinal in reverse. In Paris, Alcaraz cramped, and the match came to an anticlimactic conclusion. In Cincy, it seemed as if Djokovic’s body would be the one to capitulate.