Carlos Alcaraz reveals his masterplan after humbling Novak Djokovic in Wimbledon men’s final
Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon victory over Novak Djokovic is so breathtaking, so electrifying, so assertive, so stupendous and filled with so many bolts of brilliance that it makes you gasp.
Lightning versus thunder. Lightning wins.
Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon victory over Novak Djokovic is so breathtaking, so electrifying, so energetic, so spine-tingling, so stupendous and filled with so many bolts of brilliance that it makes you gasp. The ball makes a great crackling and zapping sound off his strings. His 6-2, 6-2, 7/6 (7/4) triumph over the deep, rolling, rumbling sound of Djokovic comes on the back of ferocious 42 winners. Lightning never strikes twice? The lightning hasn’t stopped.
Now he’s skipping through the All England Club, chatting to the Princess of Wales, nodding at Rod Laver, cradling the trophy. Unprompted he shouts a word that normally accompanies the end of a bullfight or flamenco dance. Ole! He pulls up a pew and gleefully reveals the masterplan for his career. He wants to give the record-breaking major hauls of The Big Three a shake.
“It’s a really great start of my career but I have to keep going,” he says. “I have to keep building my path. At the end of my career, I want to sit at the same table as the big guys. That’s my main goal. That’s my dream right now. It doesn’t matter if I already won four grand slams at the age of 21. If I’m not keeping going, all these tournaments for me, it doesn’t matter. I really want to keep going. I will try to keep winning and end my career with a lot of them.”
As far as dreams go, it’s a big one. Climbing Everest when you’ve only just checked out of Base Camp. Twenty-four majors for Djokovic. Twenty-two for Nadal. Twenty for Federer. Asked how many he can win, Alcaraz says: “Well, right now I’m really happy with the work that I’m doing with my team. I’m really proud about myself. All the things that I’m doing great. I’m really proud about my people around me. Everything we have done already has been unbelievable. It’s an amazing journey so far and as I said, I really want to keep going, to keep improving, to keep growing up. To try to keep winning. That’s all that matters for me right now. I don’t know what is my limit. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to keep enjoying my moment. Just to keep dreaming. Let’s see if at the end of my career if it’s going to be 25, 30, 15, four. I don’t know. All I want to say is that I want to keep enjoying. Let’s see what the future brings to me.”
Thunder has no answer against lightning. The warmest applause inside Centre Court is for Princess Kate. The most deafening is for Alcaraz. Lightning is heading for the simplest and most ruthless of victories at 5-4, 40-0 in the final set, only for a combination of blazing nerves, over-exuberance, double faults, heart palpitations, twitching fingertips and thunder’s trademark tenacity to force a tie-breaker. Which merely delays the inevitable.
“He was the better player from the beginning till the end,” Djokovic says.
The great Serb is in decline. Soundly whooped by 22-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open. Blown to smithereens by Alcaraz in London. The most damning statistics? Djokovic has reached only one final all year. This one. He hasn’t beaten a top-ten player since November. Slowly, steadily, declining. To his credit, he’s treated his disaster against Alcaraz as Kipling suggests.
“Huge congrats to Carlos,” he says. “It really was inevitable for him to win. He was on the court with a better quality of tennis. It’s as simple as it is. You can analyse the match and say, ‘I could have done this or that,’ but the way I felt on the court against him, I was inferior. That’s it. He was a better player.”
Djokovic is flat from the opening game. Displaying none of his trademark combativeness. He needs to pick a fight with the crowd, or the umpire, or a ball kid, or a linesman, or the Princess of Wales, but he seems resigned to his fate. Three lightning strikes, three quick sets, and he’s out.
“Carlos played every single shot better than I did,” he says. “I don’t think I could have done much more. He really outplayed me. It was all about him. He was the dominant force. He was better than me in every aspect of the game. In movement, in the way he was striking the ball beautifully, serving great, everything. Of course I feel disappointed. It’s a bitter taste to lose the final the way I did. But he was the best player of the tournament, without a doubt. That’s all I can say. From the very beginning, you could see he was at least half a step better than I am. In every way.”
Alcaraz and Sinner have shared this year’s Australian Open (Sinner), French Open (Alcaraz) and Wimbledon titles. The Big Three have dominated the majors for 20 years but now it’s official. A new era has begun. Ole!
“Being here with Jannik at 21, 22 years old, in the top of the rankings, winning the grand slams, I think it’s good for tennis to have new faces winning the big things and fighting for the big tournaments,” Alcaraz says. “I’m really glad to have him there. We have a really good rivalry as young players coming up and fighting for these things. It’s great for the sport, for tennis and for the players.”
Djokovic has won every prize, gong, trophy, certificate, medal, cup and bouquet in tennis – apart from an Olympic gold medal. He concedes he’s far from favouritism for the Paris Games. “I will keep going,” he said. “I still have intentions to play the Olympics. Hopefully I have a chance to fight for a medal for my country. Let’s see how physically and mentally I’m going to feel. Hopefully I can find the right tennis because I’m going to need all I have and more to go to the final of the Olympic Games. I am behind. That’s the reality I have to accept at the moment.”
Watching Djokovic leave the All England Club, tail between his legs, past his use-by date but a gracious loser, you’re thinking … the king is dead. He doffs his cap to the new guard and says: “Jannik and Carlos are the best in the world this year. By far. I feel like I’m not at that level. In order to really have a chance to beat these guys in the latter stages of the Olympics – I need to be better. I’m going to work on it. It’s not something I haven’t experienced before in my life. I’ve had so many different experiences in my career and in the face of adversity, normally I rise and learn and get stronger. That is what I’m going to do.”
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