MELBOURNE, Australia — The eighth installment of the fascinating generational rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz is here. It will be the first match at the Australian Open, though, and the first in the quarter-finals of the tournament; everyone else has reached the semi-finals or finals.

"Well, I guess that's not the right player to play in the quarterfinals," Alcaraz said with a smile, looking ahead to Tuesday's game. "But facing Novak, for me, it doesn't change anything if I play him in the quarter-finals or semi-finals. Obviously, if it's the final, it might change a little bit. In four points In the final, I will approach the game the same way I did in the previous games against him, let's see."

Alcaraz reached the Grand Slam quarterfinals for the 10th time in his career on Sunday afternoon after No. 15 seed Jack Draper stopped playing with a hip injury after losing the first two sets. He is tied with the most men to reach the quarter-finals before his 22nd birthday.

Djokovic, who is coached by old rival Andy Murray in Melbourne, had his work cut out for him on Rod Laver Arena in the evening, taking a little longer but winning 6-3, 6-4, 7 A -6 finish accomplished the same task (4) over No. 24 Jiri Lehecka.

Djokovic knocked the ball off the wall in the third set, drawing boos and whistles from some spectators. When they made more noise later, referee Mohamed Rayani warned those in the stands to be more polite to the players.

Beyond that, though, Djokovic received plenty of support, from Serbian flags in the stands to chants of his nickname "Noor" that echoed around the main stadium.

Subsequently, Djokovic canceled his usual on-court interview, but took the microphone himself and said to the audience: "Thank you very much for coming here tonight. I thank you for coming and supporting. See you in the next round. Thank you. Very." Then he walked away.

The stakes are high for the 21-year-old third-seeded Alcaraz and the 37-year-old seventh-seeded Djokovic.

Alcaraz is seeking to become the youngest player to complete a career Grand Slam and win at least one trophy in all four of tennis' most prestigious tournaments. All four of his wins so far have come elsewhere: twice at Wimbledon by beating Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 finals, and once at the 2022 US Open and last year's France at the Open.

Meanwhile, Djokovic is trying to win his 11th title in Melbourne and become the first player in tennis history to win 25 Grand Slam singles titles. He led 4-3 against Alcaraz and won the final at the Paris Olympics last August, clinching the gold medal for Serbia.

However, in the majors, Alcaraz leads 2-1.

"If I think about everything he's done in tennis, I can't compete. I mean, 24 Grand Slams, the longest number of weeks at No. 1 - everything. He's pretty much broken the field of tennis. All the records. I try not to think about it, when I'm playing, I just want to... beat him," Alcaraz said. "I know my weapons. I know (if) I can play good tennis with him, I can beat him."

On Sunday, Alcaraz was leading 7-5, 6-1 when Draper decided he couldn't continue. He has been dealing with physical issues after winning each of his first three matches at Melbourne Park in five sets.

“This is not the way I want to win the game and get to the next round,” Alcaraz said. "It's great to play the quarter-finals again in Australia, but a bit sad for Jack."

Sunday's match was a win for Alcaraz, who was playing his first Australian Open match against a top-20 opponent. He joins Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander as the player with the most appearances in the quarter-finals of a major tournament 22 times ago.

Alcaraz's best result at Melbourne Park was reaching the quarter-finals last year, losing at that stage to Alexander Zverev. The other quarter-final in the lower half of the men's bracket will pit No. 2 Zverev against No. 12 seed American Tommy Paul.

It took Paul less than 1.5 hours to finish against a weakened opponent who asked his coach for help. Things didn't get any better this time around for 66th-ranked Davidovich Fokina, who emerged victorious despite losing the first two sets in each of his past two matches.

"Everything he's done the last few games has been unreal... to do it two times in a row is awesome," Paul said.

But Paul won by almost twice as many points (85-43) as his Spanish opponent.

Paul's best performance in any Grand Slam tournament was reaching the semifinals at the 2023 Australian Open. He will try to repeat that, defeating two-time major runner-up Zverev, who defeated No. 14 Ugo Humbert 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.