Spinal Tap: The legendary comic band reunite after 40 years
The story of the legendary comic band returning to the big screen after 40 years.
The story of the legendary comic band returning to the big screen after 40 years.
There are many fantasy matchups fans would love to see between players from different generations. Who would not love to watch Bjorn Borg take on Pete Sampras, or Roger Federer play his idol and eventual coach Stefan Edberg?
The age gap between those two pairs — 15 years for both — is actually smaller than the 16 years that separate 22-year-old Carlos Alcaraz and 38-year-old Novak Djokovic, who will meet Friday in the US Open semi-finals. Alcaraz and Djokovic might not seem like conventional opponents on the biggest stages in sport, but over the past three years they have built an inter-generational rivalry that will be remembered for years to come.
There is not much precedent for such a rivalry in all of sport. Nearly 13 years separate Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who became fierce opponents for F1 glory. Floyd Mayweather boxed Canelo Alvarez, 13 years his junior, but they were not both in the prime of their careers.
In tennis, Serena Williams is 16 years older than Naomi Osaka, but they only met four times, whereas Djokovic leads Alcaraz 5-3 in their series and they are adding a ninth chapter Friday.
Roger Federer recently played into his late 30s and made the 2021 Wimbledon quarter-finals aged 39. But the Swiss’ rivals were still Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who were his contemporaries.
From the first chapter of the Djokovic-Alcaraz Lexus ATP Head2Head series at the 2022 Mutua Madrid Open through their meeting earlier this year at the Australian Open, the two stars have met for some of the biggest prizes in tennis, including two major finals, the Paris Olympics gold medal match and an ATP Masters 1000 final. Their quarter-final in Melbourne this season was their earliest meeting at any tournament.
It is largely being made possible by Djokovic’s longevity. The Serbian is seven years older now than his idol, Sampras, was when the American played his final match aged 31. Yet Djokovic is still competing deep into major tournaments. In 2025, he has made the last four at all the Slam tournaments. The man who commentated on the first Djokovic-Alcaraz clash, Nick Lester, is not surprised.
“I never forget Andre Agassi saying, when he worked in a very short period with Novak, that Djokovic as a 40-year-old will still probably be competing at the very highest level, because he has a body and a makeup that he had never seen before,” Lester said. “That stuck with me. When Andre speaks, I think most people listen. And here we are, not too far off that, maybe a couple of years away from it. So part of me is not surprised.
“But I think there is a small part of me that maybe is. Am I surprised that Novak at 38 is still in the mix with these guys? Probably not. Honestly, no. Clearly time is in the essence. He knows that. We all know that.”
When Djokovic and Alcaraz first met in Madrid more than three years ago, it was the Spaniard’s moment to step into the sun. Alcaraz beat Rafael Nadal and Djokovic in back-to-back days, taking a gruelling three hours and 36 minutes to upset the Serbian.
“Probably it’s one of the best days of my career, of my life, without doubts,” Alcaraz said.
Little did the tennis world know that four months later he would become the youngest No. 1 player in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings. Alcaraz then showed that he would be more than just a challenger for Djokovic when he beat the Serbian in back-to-back Wimbledon finals in 2023 and 2024.
It was not until last year’s Paris Olympics that Djokovic struck back, claiming the final trophy missing from his collection. Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have risen to the top of the sport, winning seven consecutive majors between them.
Suddenly Djokovic, who owns the record for weeks at No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings with 428, is the hunter rather than the hunted. Alcaraz plays dazzling all-court tennis that the 100-time tour-level titlist needs to rise to rather than the other way around.
But as Djokovic showed at this year’s Australian Open, he is hungry to do just that against his younger rivals. The 38-year-old could need to oust both Alcaraz and Sinner for the US Open title.
“Everybody is probably expecting and anticipating the final between [the] two of them,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to try to, you know, mess up the plans of most of the people.”
Djokovic might be 38, but he has not played like it. Only Sinner has defeated him in a completed match at a major this season, doing so twice. The 24-time major champion retired after a set in the Australian Open semi-finals to Alexander Zverev.
“I think he has been overtaken by two players that have possibly raised the bar again when we didn’t think that was necessarily possible,” Lester said of Sinner and Alcaraz. “But I think in terms of the age gap and the significance of the age gap, it is remarkable, undoubtedly. There’s a part of me that thinks that Novak is still driven as well now at this age by these two guys, and I think we saw that in his press conference afterwards.
“There was that little bit of an edge of ‘Don’t forget me’ still. And I know he’s done everything and I know he’s ticked every box in the sport largely. But I think these two guys now maybe are even giving him that last bit of fuel, possibly in the sport to get after it.”
Djokovic has another chance to show why he is still very much the present Friday inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Amanda Anisimova fights back to beat Naomi Osaka and set up an enticing US Open final against defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Entering the US Open, Felix Auger-Aliassime was not in Nitto ATP Finals contention. But the Canadian has put himself in position to make a big splash in the battle for a coveted Nitto ATP Finals spot.
Despite beginning the season’s final major in 18th place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, Auger-Aliassime has surged to 10th by reaching the semi-finals. The Canadian is now within 365 points of eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti.
PIF ATP Live Race To Turin (entering US Open SF)
| Player | Points |
| 1) Carlos Alcaraz | 9,340 |
| 2) Jannik Sinner | 7,450 |
| 3) Novak Djokovic | 4,180 |
| 4) Alexander Zverev | 4,180 |
| 5) Ben Shelton | 3,710 |
| 6) Taylor Fritz | 3,465 |
| 7) Alex de Minaur | 3,145 |
| 8) Lorenzo Musetti | 3,070 |
| 9) Jack Draper | 2,990 |
| 10) Felix Auger-Aliassime | 2,705 |
The semi-finalists are the top three players in the Live Race — Carlios Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic — and Auger-Aliassime, who still has an opportunity to move into a qualifying spot while in New York.
If the 25-year-old wins his semi-final against Sinner, he will climb to seventh place (3,205 points). If Auger-Aliassime claims his maiden major trophy, he will rocket to fifth (3,905 points).
The Canadian qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time in 2022, falling in the round-robin stage. Of his seven ATP Tour titles, four have come after the US Open, so Auger-Aliassime still has time to make his mark in the Live Race.
Two of the eight players currently in a qualifying position — fifth-placed Ben Shelton and eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti — are trying to make their debut in Turin. Ninth-placed Jack Draper is also pursuing his first appearance in the year-end championships.
Alcaraz and Sinner are the two singles players who have already qualified for the event, which will again be held at Inalpi Arena in Turin from 9-16 November.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Aryna Sabalenka says playing Nick Kyrgios in a planned but as-yet unconfirmed ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match would be a “good thing”.
British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski continue their pursuit of a first men’s doubles Grand Slam crown by reaching the US Open final.
When JJ Tracy was going through the process of figuring out which university he would attend, the product of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Hilton Head, South Carolina visited Ohio State University. His host on the trip was Robert Cash, whom he had crossed paths with in the juniors but never played against or with.
“Usually because I wouldn’t make it that far in the tournaments,” Tracy said.
“No, he’s not giving himself credit,” Cash, from New Albany, Ohio, quickly added.
Both Americans laughed. Today, they are close friends and doubles partners on the ATP Tour who are into the semi-finals of the US Open, trying to become the only All-American men’s doubles team to claim the title this century besides twins Bob and Mike Bryan.
But the former Buckeyes’ bond truly began to form on that visit before they were teammates.
“I just realised how down to earth JJ was. It’s kind of rare in tennis,” Cash said. “I felt like we had a connection off the rip. We were very similar in a lot of ways. He was very cool, very funny, meshed with the team extremely well on his visit and then when he started school, he worked harder than everybody else and that’s what I really admired about him.
“He tried so hard on the court and was an unbelievable teammate, unbelievable friend. I just think that we get along so well off court and on court, and it helps us both ways.”
Cash’s longtime dream has been to go to medical school and eventually become a surgeon and his partner, Tracy, studied finance at Ohio State.
“Never really got to get a big head about any special finance major because we had a couple doctors on the team,” Tracy joked.
The pair’s professional journey nearly was over before it began. In the 2024 NCAA Doubles Championship, Cash and Tracy faced two match points in the semi-finals. Had they let slip one of those points, Cash would have fully focused on medical school applications and Cash would have put his energy into singles.
Instead, they won the tournament and earned a US Open wild card. They also were awarded a wild card into the Hall of Fame Open, reaching their first ATP Tour final there. The Americans made enough progress on the ATP Challenger Tour at the end of the season that they decided to forge forward together and Cash put his dream of becoming a surgeon on pause.
This year they won their first tour-level title in Los Cabos and with their semi-final run in New York are 11th in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.
“It’s unbelievable. I was playing singles back then, but never in a million years would I go play a 15K or a Challenger in singles and trade it for this. I mean, this is unbelievable,” Tracy said. “It’s been super special to see us climb the ranks, from winning our first Challenger tournament to stringing a few of them together, making our first ATP appearance and Los Cabos, getting our first title.
“We were getting interviewed some in Los Cabos and I kept saying that our goal is to win one of every level of tournament. We’ve knocked out everything except 500, 1,000 and this, so this would be a good one to knock off.”
A clear reason behind the Americans’ success is how well they get along and work together. They don’t just merge together well in terms of their games, but also their personalities.
“He’s just really easy to be around. He’s always got a good attitude, great energy,” Cash said. “People feed off of him, and nothing really brings him down, so he’s always got a smile on his face, bringing people, putting smiles on people’s faces around him, and such an easy guy to be around.”
Tracy said: “[He is a] very good leader off the court, on the court. There’s been times in my life I was down, there are times I’m down, he’s always knocking on my door saying, ‘What’s the deal, dude? What’s good?’ He’s always trying to pick me back up. He led all through college as a teammate, as a friend.”
When Cash and Tracy advanced to the last four on Wednesday evening, countryman Ben Shelton posted his congratulations on Instagram Stories: “Hype for these boys”. They were all in college at the same time.
“I thought it was very nice of him, the college crew kind of sticks together. That guy absolutely is crushing it. He hit the ground running. He’s a super, super nice guy off court. Very humble, very grounded, and he’s been nothing but supportive and nice to JJ and I off the court,” Cash said. “He didn’t have to do that. He’s Top 10 in the world in singles. He doesn’t have to give us the time of day, but he’s such a nice guy off the court, and we’re really appreciative of that.”
The former college standouts know their job is not yet done. Cash and Tracy return to the court Thursday to face this year’s Roland Garros champions Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos for a place in the final.
“Our coach has been on us all the time about it off the court. He tells us to stay in the dirt. Stay in the dirt, just don’t go too far in the clouds, look too far in advance,” Cash said. “We’ve got to take it one step at a time. There’s still matches to be played, matches to be won. The job’s not finished, so we need to be happy, celebrate the win tonight. But we’ve got to focus and put all our energy and effort towards the match tomorrow.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Another month, more moments of magic on the ATP Tour. From Ben Shelton’s devastating pass in Cincinnati to Julian Cash’s epic scramble in Toronto, ATPTour.com has selected four candidates for August’s Hot Shot of the Month.
At the ATP Masters 1000 event in Toronto, Cash chased to the advertising boards to flick a winner, while Shelton brought the crowd to their feet in Cincinnati, where he fired a bullet pass.
Former No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Kei Nishikori ditched the double-hander to strike an improvised one-handed backhand winner in his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting against Camilo Ugo Carabelli in Cincinnati and Kamil Majchrzak ended August with a wild side spin drop shot in Winston-Salem.
Watch the hot shots below and then visit the voting page to cast your vote for your favourite before 12 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CET) on 9 September.
Watch the video and vote:
Americans Alex Michelsen and Reilly Opelka will feature for Team World at this year’s Laver Cup in San Francisco, where they are replacing the injured pair of Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul.
Shelton suffered a shoulder injury during his US Open third-round match with Adrian Mannarino and was forced to retire with the score at two sets apiece, while Paul struggled physically in his five-set defeat to Alexander Bublik at the same stage.
Team World are aiming to recapture the title after Team Europe triumphed in Berlin last year. Michelsen and Opelka will be joined by World No. 4 Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca and Francisco Cerundolo, under the leadership of Andre Agassi.
Spearheaded by captain Yannick Noah, Team Europe will feature Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Jakub Mensik and Flavio Cobolli. The tournament takes place from 19-21 September at Chase Center.
Michelsen, who competed in the past two editions of the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF last year, will make his Laver Cup debut, while Opelka returns for the first time since 2021.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Carlos Alcaraz has reached the semifinals of the US Open without dropping a set and is producing a level of tennis that has satisfied even the most demanding members of his team.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s analysis of the current campaign highlights the maturity the No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings is displaying on court, both in terms of his solidity and the way he is handling his emotions during key moments. The coach, who has been alongside Alcaraz since his early days, is seeing very clear signs that his player is now taking another stride in his competitive evolution.
“It’s true that we’ve always known that he was very good in terms of his tennis, but the truth is that mentally I believe he’s better than ever, in terms of concentration and solidity,” said Ferrero on Wednesday. “I’d say that at this tournament he’s starting to reach what maybe we can see as the huge potential he has. We know that technically he’s very, very, very good, and we’ve always worked on that consistency regarding the little ups and downs.
“Despite the experience he has, he’s still very young, so he’s still in the process of maturing and improving. But that’s what we ask of him and what we’re practising. Little by little he’s shown glimpses of improvement and perhaps this tournament is where it’s been the most evident. He’s making around five, six, seven unforced errors in the whole set and I think that’s the big difference compared to other tournaments.”
Looking back and comparing today’s Alcaraz to the one that claimed the title in New York three years ago, when he took down Casper Ruud to win the first major of his career and simultaneously become the youngest World No. 1 in history, is somewhat inevitable.
“I’d say that he’s improved everything,” said Ferrero. “In terms of maturity he’s improved so much and mentally he has a much better understanding that tough situations are where you have to produce your best level. The serve and forehand are also much better. If a player hasn’t improved at all in three years… the coach is very bad.
“He has incredible skills and is on an incredible trajectory. Whatever you ask him to do, he achieves it very quickly. That’s good and bad at the same time because you can get overconfident. Like any player, you really have to stay on top of that.”
CARLITOS 👉 SEMI-FINALS ❤️🔥@usopen | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/KN2YOLfM8f
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 2, 2025
After Wimbledon, the team had a vital conversation about priorities. Jannik Sinner took the spoils in a four-set final to win his first title at the All England Tennis Club, but it was also a valuable lesson for Alcaraz.
“Team chats are often important,” noted Ferrero. “In that chat we talked a bit about the Wimbledon final, his feelings about it, what we saw, the things that clearly had to improve, how we should approach the US swing and so on. Situations that are normal within the team.
“I think it was a very interesting, very positive chat, and he was very clear about things, as were we. It helped him in terms of being very motivated for the rest of the year.”
That motivation is in no doubt; after the summer, Alcaraz reappeared to take the title in Cincinnati and has thus far cruised to the semi-finals of the US Open. It is a very different scenario a year ago, when he struggled to move on from Olympic gold slipping through his fingers at Paris 2024.
“This swing is very different to last year, he’s arrived here feeling much fresher,” explained the 22-year-old’s coach. “That rest and those holidays really served him well after a month and a half that was pretty stressful with Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Those holidays are necessary for him to reset his mind, to be with his people and to be at a mental level where he can continue to compete at the highest level.”
That ‘highest level’ will be absolutely necessary on Friday, when Novak Djokovic will be on the other side of the net and quite probably give the Spaniard his sternest test so far at the final Grand Slam event of the year.
Editor’s note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es
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