WIMBLEDON, England — carlos alcaraz he said he wanted another chance Novak Djokovic. She said that he would win a Wimbledon most special championship. Well, Alcaraz got his chance to face Djokovic. And he beat him.
Alcaraz put aside a poor start and rallied down the stretch to end Djokovic’s 34-match winning streak at the All England Club by beating him 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6 -4 in an interesting back-and-forth final on Sunday, claiming her first Wimbledon championship and second Grand Slam trophy overall.
Ranked No. 1 Alcaraz prevented No. 2 Djokovic to collect what would have been a record eighth title, and fifth in a row, at the grass-court tournament. Djokovic was also prevented from winning a career-high 24th in his career.
Instead of Djokovic, a 36-year-old Serb who became the oldest Wimbledon men’s champion in the Open era, Alcaraz, a 20-year-old Spaniard, became the third-youngest. The age difference between the two was the widest in any men’s Grand Slam final since 1974.
So Alcaraz had youth on his side, which he also did, of course, when they met at the French Open last month. That one was extraordinary for two sets before Alcaraz cramped up and passed out. This time, he had the stamina and punches to get past Djokovic.
Alcaraz is quicker and capable of more power – serves top 130mph, forehands top 100mph – but Djokovic is equipped with a host of talents and plenty of muscle memory. He’s been there, and done it, in ways Alcaraz, for now, can only dream of.
But if this win on a windy, overcast day on Center Court, where Djokovic last lost in the 2013 final, is any indication, Alcaraz is well on his way to something of his own.
Still, this is all relatively new to him: Djokovic’s record-breaking 35 Grand Slam final was Alcaraz’s second.
However, it was Alcaraz who won a mini-masterpiece of a 32-point, 25-minute game en route to taking the third set. And it was Alcaraz who wasn’t intimidated when Djokovic forced things into a fifth set.
It was Alcaraz who took the lead for good by breaking to go up 2-1 in the fifth with a backhand winner. Djokovic, who fell during the point but got up quickly, reacted by slamming his racket into the net post, dropping it on impact. He destroyed his equipment and earned a code violation from chair umpire Fergus Murphy.
They played on for another 24 minutes, bringing the total to over four and a half hours, but Alcaraz never relented, never relented. And it was Alcaraz, not Djokovic, who covered his face and rolled on the grass after the final point, then received the gold trophy.
Perhaps he should have expected some of Alcaraz’s nerves to show up early. His shots didn’t land where he wanted them to. Not even close. The adrenaline, the very source, probably, of Djokovic’s faster-than-usual serves early on, was perhaps running too much, too fast, for the boy to control his shots.
Sure, Alcaraz quickly earned a break point, but a long backhand from a 127mph serve wiped it out. Another too far backhand and a return into the net gave Djokovic that game. In the next, Alcaraz missed three forehands to wrap up a break and a 2-0 lead for Djokovic.
The showman in Alcaraz, a guy who will attempt and often take shots no one else considers, emerged in the following game, when he ran back to retrieve a defensive lob from Djokovic and responded with a lob between the legs. of his own Djokovic dropped him. He was called. The fans went crazy. Except that Djokovic immediately shook his head and waved, both to indicate that he was out and to defy the call: then he had to smile at the collective “Awwww!” from the seats when video playback on the scoreboard showed him actually landing long.
Soon Djokovic was up 5-0. Alcaraz finally replaced the zero to the right of his name after 31 minutes, delivering a forehand game-winning pass down the line to get a game on and earn a standing ovation from some people.
Silencing them, Djokovic clung to love to close out that set. An eye-opening stat so far: Alcaraz made nine unforced errors, Djokovic just two.
Alcaraz possesses a forehand mallet, one that he unleashes in such a way as to make the observer believe that every ounce of force, indeed, every fiber of his being, is invested in each blow. The swing of the racket, and his “Uhhh-ehhh!” the exhalation of effort, along with the gasps of the shocked spectators, reverberated through the arena.
That’s not to say, of course, that Alcaraz’s attributes end with that big forehand. It is much more than that, showing an all-court game as varied as possible, which is why stardom is augured for him. He does everything right, including the well-concealed drop shots that helped him get back to the heart of the matter in the second and third sets on Sunday.
Djokovic, of course, has already achieved greatness, spending more weeks at No. 1 than any man or woman in the half-century history of computer rankings and racking up those 23 Grand Slam wins, one more than Rafael Nadal and three more than Roger. Federer, the only man with eight Wimbledon titles.
So often on Sunday, Djokovic would rush, stretch and slide almost into the splits to return Alcaraz’s apparent final shots into the net in a way no one else could.
