Carlos Alcaraz is playing for the career Slam. Novak Djokovic is playing for the most Slams.

You can’t say Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic didn’t earn their way through their semifinals. Both of them pulled off minor miracles to make it to Sunday.

Alcaraz defeated an opponent, Alexander Zverev, who had beaten him here two years ago. More impressive, though, was the way he beat back what appeared to be cramps for nearly three sets and three hours.

In the process, Alcaraz may have given players a new template for surviving an issue like this. He stayed calm, took his time between points, used his anticipation and ball-striking skills, and gradually regained full strength. When Zverev served for the match at 5-4 in the fifth, Alcaraz was ready. He hit a backhand pass winner, a strong backhand that drew an error, a forehand winner, and another big forehand to break. When he reached match two games later, he came up with a running, dipping pass for the victory.

READ MORE: "This is bulls---": Zverev fumes about, then accepts, Carlos Alcaraz cramp drama at Australian Open

“This one was one of the more demanding matches that I’ve ever played in my career,” Alcaraz said of the five-hour and 27-minute semi. “I think physically we just push each other to the limit today. We push our bodies to the limit, which I think the level of the fifth set was really, really high.”

“Every step more, every just one second more of suffering, one second more of fighting, is always worth it.”

If it wasn’t Alcaraz’s very best, win, it was surely one of his most mature. Maybe he really was ready to go without Juan Carlos Ferrero, after all.

What were the chances that the Alcaraz-Zverev adventure would be upstaged by the evening session? Leave it to 10-time champ Novak Djokovic to make it happen in Rod Laver Arena.

Djokovic was also battling two opponents. The first was Jannik Sinner, the two-time defending champ, and a man who had beaten him five straight times. The second foe, as the match grew in length, was his own 38-year-old body. In three of the Grand Slam semis he played last year, Djokovic hadn’t held up physically. This time he grew tired, huffed and puffed, and took as many seconds between points as he could, but he proved unbreakable—literally—in the fifth.

READ MORE: Sinner had Djokovic's number, so the legend "had to change it" ahead of AO classic

Eight times Sinner reached break point in the final set, and eight times Djokovic foiled him. He found first serves, he found the corners with his  ground strokes, he dictated the rallies, he baited Sinner into going for too much, and he refused to miss. That’s the vintage version of Djokovic, someone who believes that, whoever he is facing, and whatever happens from one point to the next, he’ll won’t lose in the end.

“Definitely the finest in the last couple of years,” Djokovic said of his performance. “Doesn’t get better than this.”

It certainly doesn’t get more clutch. Djokovic won 12 fewer points, hit 14 fewer aces, and fired 26 fewer winners than Sinner, but still found a way to beat him.

“I’ll think about finals later,” Djokovic said, “but for me, this is a win that almost equals winning a Grand Slam.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Alcaraz and Djokovic will have to do it all over again on Sunday.

Alcaraz will need to recover from a five-and-a-half-hour match that was played in high heat, and hope that his right leg cooperates.

“I think the muscles are going to be tight,” he said. “I've just got to do whatever it takes to be as good as I can for the final.”

Djokovic, meanwhile, will be recovering from a match that last four hours and 9 minutes, and ended around 1:30 in the morning.

“He has 15, 16 years on me,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz. “Biologically, I think it’s going to be a bit easier for him to recover.”

Assuming both men are reasonably healthy, this clash of the dueling Houdinis will take us back a couple of years, to 2022-2024, when this was the sport’s premiere rivalry, and they gave us a series of classics from Madrid to Wimbledon to Cincinnati to the Paris Olympics.

Djokovic leads their head-to-head 5-4. While Alcaraz won their most recent meeting, pretty handily, at the US Open in 2025, Djokovic beat his younger opponent 12 months ago in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

“I won against him last year here, also in a grueling match,” Djokovic reminded reporters.

Beyond their health, the relevant factors will be the same as always.

Who will serve better? Alcaraz has had a good serving tournament, but Djokovic was razor sharp against Sinner, making 70 percent of his first serves and seemingly finding one whenever he needed it. That alone could keep him in the final.

Who will hit his forehand more cleanly? This seems especially important after Alcaraz struggled to find his rhythm on that side for much of his semifinal. He dialed in eventually, but it took a while. He’ll need to be cleaner from that side.

Can Djokovic get into Alcaraz’s head? He has surprised the Spaniard with sudden tactical changes in their past matches. And he used everything he had against Sinner on Friday. He served and volleyed on some key points, tore off a couple of clutch winners that left the Italian muttering in frustration, and urged the crowd to make more noise as often as possible. Last year here against Alcaraz, Djokovic seemed to be struggling physically, which threw the Spaniard off.

Who will be more fiercely determined? Each is going for something big: Alcaraz for the career Slam, and Djokovic for his all-time-best 25th major. Which means the edge in desperation may go to Djokovic; he knows his chances to break that record are dwindling fast.

The biggest unknowable will be Djokovic’s mental and physical stamina. On the one hand, he just beat Sinner in five sets, so he would seem to be ready for anything. On the other, we saw him run out of gas late in majors last year, and he just escaped defeat to Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals here.

If Djokovic is still in vintage fighting form on Sunday, it might require a monumental, career-best effort from Alcaraz to beat him. I’ll say he’s up to it.

Winner: Alcaraz