Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after winning his final match against Serbia's Novak Djokovic.ANDREW COULDRIDGE/Reuters
The long wait for a new hero in men’s tennis is over. Carlos Alcaraz has arrived.
How else to describe his come-from-behind victory over Novak Djokovic on Sunday – 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 – to claim his first Wimbledon title?
The 20-year-old Spaniard from the suburbs of Murcia had only played four tournaments on grass and he hadn’t gone beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon. And here he was taking down the seven-time Wimbledon champion, a 36-year-old legend who was gunning for his 24th Grand Slam title and who hadn’t lost on Centre Court in 10 years.
So here he is – a Wimbledon champion, a U.S. Open champion, world No. 1 and the embodiment of a changing of the guard in tennis.
Djokovic is the last of the game’s “big three” still playing now that Roger Federer has retired, and Rafael Nadal is injured. Among them those three had won 65 of the past 80 Grand Slams dating to 2003, a record of dominance unheard of in sports. Djokovic had won this year’s Australian and French Open and he was playing some of the best tennis of his career, until Alcaraz came along.
“It’s great for the new generation,” Alcaraz said after his win. “I think to see me beating him and making them think that they are capable to do it, as well. It’s great for me and I think for the young players, as well.”
Djokovic said Alcaraz represents the best playing qualities of all three. “I think people have been talking in the past 12 months or so about his game consisting of certain elements from Roger, Rafa, and myself,” he said. “I would agree with that. I think he’s got basically the best of all three worlds.”
Alcaraz agreed. “Probably he’s right,” he said. “I consider myself a really complete player. I think I have the shots, the strength physically, the strength mentally.”
He’s still trying to come to grips with his sudden rise. “It’s a dream come true for me, being a Wimbledon champion, something that I really wanted. Honestly, I didn’t expect to get it really soon,” he said.
He grew up in El Palmar a suburb of Murcia in Spain’s southeast. Tennis had been something of a family occupation. Alcaraz’s grandfather opened a local tennis club and his father, Carlos Sr., played at the national level before taking up coaching duties at the club.
Carlos Sr. taught Alcaraz and his two brothers the game as children. But it was little Carlito who stood out. He won his first title on the ATP Tour at 16 and qualified for the Australian Open a year later in 2021. By April of 2022 he was ranked in the top 10 and he finished the year as the youngest world No. 1 in the history of the ATP.
Alcaraz didn’t look like a giant slayer at first on Sunday. With the King of Spain looking on from the Royal Box and dozens of fans waving small Spanish flags, Djokovic manhandled his prodigy from the start.
He broke Alcaraz’s serve in the second game of the opening set and then once more before taking it 6-1 in just 34 minutes. By then Alcaraz had committed nine unforced errors, compared with just two for Djokovic, and he seemed flummoxed by the Serb’s crafty serve.
But Alcaraz settled down and quickly came back with a break early in the second set. He no longer seemed intimidated by the occasion and chased down every shot while mixing up his own deliveries with remarkable drop shots and slices that had Djokovic sliding all over.
As the pair headed for a tiebreaker to decide the second set, few gave the newbie much of a chance. Djokovic had won 14 straight tiebreakers at Grand Slams this year, going back to the second round of the Australian Open.
No matter, Alcaraz took the tiebreaker 8-6 with a stunning backhand winner that Djokovic could only watch in disbelief. “The match shifted to his side,” Djokovic recalled later. “It turned around.”
Perhaps the defining moment of the match came in the third set. With Alcaraz up 3-1 and Djokovic serving, the two battled for 26 minutes through seven break points and 13 deuces. Alcaraz hung on and won the break, offering a quick smile as cheers of “Carlos” rained down.
It was Djokovic who eventually came unglued. He complained about crowd noises and the umpire’s careful watching of the time clock for serves. At one point he slammed his racquet into one of the net posts, earning a code-violation warning from the umpire.
Alcaraz had talked for days about how he had been undone by nerves when he played Djokovic in the semi-finals of the French Open. After an even start, he lost 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to the Serb and said later that he’d crumbled under the pressure.
The fifth set on Sunday showed just how far Alcaraz had come from that day in Paris.
He’d lost the fourth set after getting broken twice and committing a flurry of double faults. With momentum shifting back to Djokovic, the pressure couldn’t have been more intense.
The second game proved to be a turning point. With Djokovic up 1-0, Alcaraz struggled on his serve and handed the Serb an easy break opportunity. But he flubbed a straightforward volley allowing Alcaraz to hold and score a break of his own in the next game.
At 5-4 and serving for the title, Alcaraz again didn’t crack. He used a careful drop shot and a beautifully placed lob en route to close out the match with a forehand winner.
“I am a totally different player than French Open. I grew up a lot since that moment,” Alcaraz said.
Like all Wimbledon winners, Alcaraz climbed into his team’s box and hugged his family, sharing an extra special moment with his father.
“I started playing tennis thanks to my dad,” he said. “It’s crazy. His whole life, it’s about tennis. I think for watching his kid making history, lifting the trophy, winning Wimbledon, is something incredible.”
Paul Waldie