Alcaraz repeats Wimbledon 'dream' over Djokovic
WIMBLEDON, England — After winning his first Wimbledon title in 2023 against seven-time champion Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz fell to the ground in disbelief after what he had achieved. It had been a nearly five-hour battle, needing five sets and with the momentum constantly shifting between the two.
On Sunday, there was no such dramatic celebration, nor much drama of any kind. Instead, Alcaraz broke Djokovic in a 13-minute marathon opening game, converting on his fifth break point, and largely dominated the rest of the 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4) match. By the end of the 2-hour, 27-minute clash on Centre Court, Alcaraz had won his fourth major title and second at Wimbledon, and Djokovic’s latest hopes for history were dashed yet again by his young rival.
As the likes of the Princess of Wales, Tom Cruise, Benedict Cumberbatch and former champions Stan Smith, Andre Agassi, Rod Laver and Chrissie Evert looked on, the 21-year-old Alcaraz raised his arms in the air before pointing to his head while looking at his team.
“In an interview when I was 11 years old, I said that my dream is to win Wimbledon,” Alcaraz told the crowd during the trophy ceremony. “So I’m repeating my dream.”
While Djokovic, 37, had been on the hunt to take sole possession of the most major singles titles in history with 25 and surpass Margaret Court for the distinction, it was Alcaraz who etched his name into the record books Sunday. He became the third-youngest man to win four Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era, behind only Mats Wilander and Bjorn Borg. Having now won in all four of his major final appearances, Alcaraz trails just Roger Federer, who was victorious in his first seven major finals, for the longest opening streak among men’s players.
Perhaps most notably, by winning the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season, Alcaraz joins Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal as the only men to have done it in the past 40 years. Borg and Rod Laver are the only other men to have achieved the feat in the Open era.
“It is a great feeling even thinking about being [the] French Open winner and Wimbledon champion the same year [and] that few players just done it before,” Alcaraz said in a news conference. “It’s unbelievable.”
From a feat of clay to a masterclass on grass 🧡💚
Only six men in the Open Era have won Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year:
Rod Laver
Bjorn Borg
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Novak Djokovic
Carlos Alcaraz#Wimbledon | @rolandgarros pic.twitter.com/vK78bKkP7G— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 14, 2024
Despite the 16-year age difference between Alcaraz and Djokovic, it was their sixth career meeting. The series is now tied at three matches each, with Alcaraz having won both meetings in a major final. Even Djokovic couldn’t help but be impressed by Alcaraz after the match.
“Huge congrats to Carlos,” Djokovic told reporters. “[He] deserved this win today. He was the better player from the beginning till the end.”
Despite losing in the round of 16 in his lone grass lead-in event at Queen’s Club, Alcaraz entered Wimbledon as the co-favorite with world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. But returning to the final wasn’t easy. He dropped the opening set in three of his six matches ahead of the final and needed five sets to defeat No. 29 seed Frances Tiafoe in the third round. But after his 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 semifinal victory over Daniil Medvedev on Friday, Alcaraz said he felt good about the state of his game.
That confidence was on full display Sunday. After the opening game, Alcaraz needed just 28 more minutes to close out the first set and 75 total minutes to take a 2-0 lead. With the crowd largely behind him, as it had been for most of the tournament, Djokovic seemed to have no answers for Alcaraz’s power and variety.
Djokovic raised his level in the third set, and Alcaraz began to show signs of nerves for the first time. Serving for the match at 5-4, Alcaraz squandered three championship points and was ultimately broken for the first time after a double fault and a string of errors. Both Djokovic and Alcaraz then held on their next service games to force a tiebreak. But Alcaraz took control and ultimately left nothing to chance, winning the match on his fourth championship point.
“It was difficult for me,” Alcaraz said. “I tried to just stay calm. I tried to stay positive from that situation, going into the tiebreak, and I tried to play my best tennis. That’s all I was thinking about. Really glad that I, at the end, could find the solutions.”
While not the result Djokovic had been hoping for, he said he was “very proud” of his performance overall and in reaching the final. After having to withdraw ahead of his quarterfinal match at the French Open last month, Djokovic underwent surgery for a torn medial meniscus in his right knee on June 5, leaving his status for Wimbledon in doubt. Even when he arrived in London the week before the main draw got underway, he told the BBC he was still unsure whether he would play but would do so only if he believed he had a chance to “fight for the title.”
En route to the final, he showed few signs of discomfort and dropped just two sets in five matches. (His quarterfinal opponent, Alex de Minaur, withdrew with a hip injury.) On Friday after his straight-sets semifinal win over Lorenzo Musetti, Djokovic said he felt as if he was “playing close to my best.”
But that wasn’t enough on Sunday, and Djokovic lost in a major final in straight sets for just the fifth time in his career. Since Djokovic took over the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in 2011, this marks just the second season in which he has not won any of the year’s first three major titles. He was reflective when speaking to the Centre Court crowd after the match.
“Obviously there’s a little bit of a disappointment right now as we’re talking 10 minutes after the match finished, but when I reflect, I’m sure on the last … four to five weeks, and really what I’ve been through along with, of course, with my team members and family, I have to say that I’m very satisfied because Wimbledon has always been a childhood dream tournament of mine,” Djokovic said.
“I always wanted to be here, play on the center stage. I try to remind myself of sometimes how surreal the feeling is of being here, and even though I was playing so many matches in my life and being really blessed to be fighting for the trophy 10 times in my career, as you mentioned, but every single time I step on the court, it feels like the first time. So I’m a child living my childhood dream once again.”
Asked in his news conference later if this would be his final Wimbledon appearance, Djokovic insisted he had no plans to retire soon and was focused on the upcoming Olympic Games and the US Open.
“As far as coming back here, I mean, I would love to,” he said. “I don’t have anything else in my thoughts right now that this is my last Wimbledon. … I don’t have any limitations in my mind. I still want to keep going and play as long as I feel like I can play on this high level.”
