Tennis commentator makes shocking comment about Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz are both great tennis players. I think most people can agree with that. Who is better historically is a ridiculous conversation currently because Djokovic is 36 years old and Alcaraz is only 20. Let's give Alcaraz another 15 years of playing professional tennis and then see where things stand. Maybe Djokovic is still better.

But we do know that Alcaraz temporarily overtook Djokovic atop the ATP rankings in 2023. Did the Spaniard earn the No. 1 ranking? Maybe not so much according to tennis commentator Chris Bowers. That does not mean Bowers thinks Alcaraz is not a great player, though, because Bowers does think that.

The tennis commentator and historian recently spoke about the reason Alcaraz reached the top on the Tennis Channel's Inside-In podcast and Bowers feels that Djokovic would have never lost his top ranking except that he was not allowed to play at the Australian Open and the US Open in 2022. The Serb did not lose his ranking because of his failure on the tennis court but because of his vaccination status following the global pandemic caused by COVID-19.

Carlos Alcaraz might not have earned to No. 1 ranking over Novak Djokovic

Bowers said on the podcast, "I would say, the person I’m most excited about now is Alcaraz...At the moment he’s slightly at the down, doesn’t seem to play too much, partly because he got to the top artificially early because Djokovic wasn’t allowed to play two of the four majors and four of the eight Masters in 2022 because of his vaccine status."

The part about how Djokovic lost his ranking is true. He could have played in the two majors he missed as well as the four Masters 1000s he missed. But he made a choice not to be vaccinated and that cost him his ranking. Still, the decision he made was his own and he was aware of what might happen.

But what Bowers says about Alcaraz not playing very much is a bit odd. Maybe he slightly misspoke. Before Alcaraz suffered an ankle injury this week, the issue with Alcaraz's current struggles wasn't that he was not playing but that he wasn't winning at the level he was. In fact, ATP No. 3 Jannik Sinner seems like a better player than Alcaraz currently. Heck, Sinner is in better form than Djokovic as well. But Djokovic remains No. 1 for now as he prepares to play Indian Wells in March where Alcaraz and Sinner should also play.

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