By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
In a Wimbledon final that will compared with many of the greatest matches of all-time, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 to win his first title at the All England Club and deny Djokovic his opportunity to win an eighth career Wimbledon title and deny him the opportunity to attempt to close out a Grand Slam at the U.S. Open later this summer.
The match lasted four hours and 42 minutes, the second longest Wimbledon final ever, and featured dazzling rallies between two of the most athletic tennis players to ever take to a court.
Wrote Matthew Futterman in the New York Times, “In a startling comeback that rocked the All England Club’s venerable Centre Court, Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish star who has blitzed the sport in his brief career, pulled off the nearly impossible, beating Novak Djokovic in a Wimbledon final on the grass that the man widely recognized as the greatest ever to play the sport has long treated as his back lawn.”
On the line for Djokovic was, first and foremost, the opportunity to try to achieve the most rare accomplishment in tennis in attempting to close out a Grand Slam. Djokovic had won the Australian and French Open earlier in the year and, as a seven-time champion and four-time defending champion who had not lost on Centre Court at Wimbledon in 10 years, was a big favorite to win again at the All England Club and go into the U.S Open later this summer and try to close out the sweep of all four major events in a calendar year, an achievement only performed by two men, Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969. Djokovic had won the first three legs of the Grand Slam in 2019, only to be stopped one match shy of the finish line in a final-round loss in New York to Daniil Medvedev.
Djokovic’s win in Paris at Roland Garros last month cemented his place in tennis history as his record-breaking 23rd major singles title. A win at Wimbledon would have extended his lead over the injured Rafael Nadal, who owns 22 major singles titles, and would have tied Margaret Court with 24 major singles titles on the women’s tour.
Djokovic also was denied his opportunity to join Bjorn Borg and Roger Federer as only the third player in the modern Open Era of tennis (since 1968) to win five straight Wimbledon men’s singles titles. It also would have been his eighth title at the All England Club, which would have tied Federer’s record mark of eight Wimbledon titles.
But for all that was “lost” for Djokovic, Alcaraz affirmed his status as the new star in the world of tennis. Tagged for greatness since he first started playing pro tennis at age 15, he first made noise for future greatness at the U.S. Open last year when he endured through three five-set matches (two finishing deep in the early morning) before persisting in a four-set final against Casper Ruud. After missing the next major at the Australian Open due to injury, Alcaraz was tapped to win the French Open on his favorite surface, clay, but was stopped by Djokovic in the semifinals in a strange match that featured Alcaraz suffering from cramps, due to nerves, in the third set and he wilted quickly into defeat. Beating Djokovic in this important final exorcised the ghosts of that major disappointment and maintained his grip as the world’s No. 1 ranked player. Alcaraz joins Spanish legends Nadal and Manuel Santana as Spanish winners of Wimbledon and at age 20, only can say that Boris Becker, who won titles at age 17 and 18, was a younger champion in the Open Era at the All England Club.
