Alcaraz wins Wimbledon in exciting comeback against Djokovic

After years of false starts, men’s tennis finally has a real war between the generations.

In a surprise comeback that rocked the venerable Center Court of the All England Club, Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish star who has rocked the sport in his short career, did the near-impossible, beating Novak Djokovic in a Wimbledon final on grass that the man has widely recognized as the best ever to play the sport and has long treated as his backyard.

In addition to chasing the Grand Slam, Djokovic aimed to quench the dreams of another heralded upstart by challenging his grip on the game, which has produced 23 Grand Slam tournament titles to date. Alcaraz is the flag bearer of the next group of players set to take the sport beyond the Big Three era, an era that saw Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and Djokovic reign longer than many expected.

Alcaraz won last year’s US Open in a thrilling, acrobatic fashion and made it clear that men’s tennis would be turned upside down by an unusual talent. This year, he pulled out of the Australian Open due to injury and was defeated by Djokovic in the semifinals of the French Open. But the buzz around him and his future never died down.

“It’s great for the new generation,” Alcaraz said, “to see me beat him and make them think they’re capable of doing it.”

Down after the first set and struggling to avoid embarrassment, Alcaraz rediscovered his unique combination of speed, power and touch and narrowly discovered the subtleties of grass tennis.

He clawed his way back into the match in an epic 85-minute second set that saw him one point away from what appeared to be an insurmountable two-set deficit.

He took control of the match midway through the third set, then faltered in the fourth set as Djokovic, the four-time defending champion and seven-time Wimbledon winner, rediscovered the footwork that has long served as the basis of his success.

Djokovic is the most dangerous player ever when he was defeated, but Alcaraz rose again to claim victory, 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, not only overcoming Djokovic’s endless skills and talents, but also breaking his spirit.

When the momentum turned one last time, when Alcaraz swung a backhand down the line to break Djokovic’s serve early in the fifth set, the iron-spirited Serb slammed his racquet into the net post. A few points earlier, he had squandered his chance to seize control by swinging a floating forehand into the center of the field and sending it into the net. Now, just a few minutes later, what has so rarely happened to him in recent years happened – a loss for a relative newcomer to a big stage, especially this big stage.

Last month, Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam champion, finally eclipsed his old rivals, Nadal and Federer. But this loss cost him a shot at one of the few prizes he hasn’t won: he became the first player since 1969 to win the men’s singles Grand Slam, winning all four major tournaments in a single year. Two years ago, he was only one game away from this achievement. This time, at age 36, an age when most champions have retired to the broadcast booth, he was eight games away.

It seemed so close, but in the last game Alcaraz showed why everyone has been making such a fuss about him for so long. He finished off Djokovic with his sexiest weapons: the silky smooth drop shot, the artful topspin lob, an explosive serve and a final ripping forehand that Djokovic reached for but couldn’t lift over the net.

Alcaraz fell to the ground and rolled on the grass, his hands covering his face in disbelief. Hugging Djokovic at the net, he shook hands with the referee, picked up a loose ball from the grass and kicked it into the crowd before going into the stands to hug his parents and his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero.

“Beating Novak at his best, at this stage, making history, being the guy who beat him after 10 years undefeated on that field is amazing for me,” said Alcaraz.

After receiving the championship trophy from Catherine, Princess of Wales, on a day when famous celebrities such as the actors Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig, Emma Watson and Hugh Jackman and the singer Ariana Grande came forward, he joked with King Felipe VI of Spain, who also saw the triumph of the young Spanish player.

“Now that I’ve won, I hope you come to more of my matches,” Alcaraz told the king.

One of Alcaraz’s many mentors, Nadal, the great Spanish player who had dethroned another Wimbledon icon, Federer, in 2008, wrote on social media that Alcaraz had brought “immense joy” to Spanish tennis.

“A very strong hug, and enjoy the moment Champion!!!” wrote Nadal, who missed the tournament due to recent hip and abdominal surgery.

The loss provided a rare moment for Djokovic, who acknowledged that he had at least lost to a better player on this day.

“A hard one to swallow,” Djokovic said of the loss. He then swallowed back tears as he watched his son, who smiled at him from a court seat. “Thank you for supporting me,” he told his family. “I’ll give you a big hug and we can all love each other.”

On Saturday, Mats Wilander, the seven-time Grand Slam winner who is now one of the most respected voices in the sport, rated Djokovic’s chances of defeating Alcaraz and winning the four 2023 Grand Slam events at 90 percent.

“He’s got too many guns,” Wilander said. “He knows everything there is to know about the sport. He has it all down to a science. The opponents are not ready for him.”

In the opening minutes of Sunday’s final, Wilander looked prophetic. The most important men’s match on the tennis calendar resembled one between two players who had walked onto Center Court under completely different circumstances.

It was the usual Sunday in July for Djokovic. But Alcaraz was playing in his first Wimbledon final, and that weight was piled on after the stress-induced full-body cramps he suffered during his semifinal showdown with Djokovic at the French Open last month. That had been the first big moment when Alcaraz, the top seed and number 1 in the world, failed to live up to his hype.

Sunday was different. But not first.

From the opening moments, Djokovic pinned Alcaraz in the back corner of the field with low shots that made it impossible for Alcaraz to go on the attack. He crushed service returns, aimed at the brown patches of dirt on Alcaraz’s feet and sent him running backwards.

Djokovic was set up before the game was half an hour old, but Alcaraz had a 2-0 lead in the second.

Alcaraz’s chance to salvage his maiden Wimbledon final came down to a crucial tiebreak at the end of an epic second set that lasted three times as long as the first. Tiebreakers are Djokovic’s specialty. Entering the final, he had won 14 consecutive Grand Slam matches.

The moment brought out the best in both players – the big serves to the corners; annoying drop shots; sharp, point-saving winners with the opponent approaching the net – and the packed crowd, with alternating chants of “Novak, Novak” and “Carlos, Carlos” echoing over the center court overhangs.

And just when it looked like Djokovic was about to take a commanding two-set lead, he sent two backhands into the net to give Alcaraz a chance to tie. Alcaraz then cracked a backhand return from Djokovic’s serve down the line to tie the game to a set.

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson once said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Alcaraz had fired a shot at Djokovic’s jaw and Djokovic felt it. The third set was a series of errors by Djokovic. He fought to regain a foothold in the game, never more than a halfway game going to 13 deuces, which ended with a Djokovic forehand into the net.

As he usually does when down, Djokovic took a long bathroom break before the fourth set. He splashes water in his face and talks to himself in the mirror. Usually he comes out a different player, and Sunday was no different, as he seized the initiative again, broke Alcaraz’s serve midway, got back into his head and took the set as Alcaraz, tense and defensive again, double-faulted.

After nearly four hours they were back where they started. Nearly five hours of drama would amount to a few moments.

“He surprised me. He took everyone by surprise,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz, who in his eyes had taken elements of his style, those of Nadal and Federer, and put a prowess on grass – his grass! – much sooner than he expected. “I’ve never played against a player like him.”