Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
If one were to extrapolate any kind of wisdom from the first game of the Wimbledon men’s final—which pitted third-seeded Carlos Alcaraz against second-seeded Novak Djokovic—it would likely be: We are in for one of the greatest—and longest—finals matches in Grand Slam history. That game, which lasted 13 minutes and featured 20 points and seven deuces, seemed a harbinger of epic things to come. (Think about it this way: If the match continued like that—even assuming it was won in three straight sets, say 6-4, 6-4, 6-4—it would have lasted six and a half hours.)
The crowd—which included the Princess of Wales (in only her second public appearance, following June’s Trooping the Colour ceremonies, since disclosing her cancer diagnosis and treatment) and her daughter, Charlotte, in the Royal Box, along with Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Cruise, Paul Mescal, and tennis legends Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Chris Evert, Stan Smith, and Stefan Edberg—settled in for a classic.
Alas! That game was an outlier, not a predictor. Rather than witness a match for the ages, we saw a new kind of dominance emerge, with Alcaraz playing at a level that Djkokovic simply couldn’t match and defending his title in a 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 near-romp. (There was one significant wobble in an otherwise flawless day from Alcaraz: Having won every point but one in what should have been the last two games of the match, and serving for the title at 40-0, he somehow let Djokovic steal the game, ultimately leading to a tiebreak to decide the match—which Alcaraz won handily, 7-4.) “It wasn’t meant to be,” Djokovic—who was contesting his tenth(!) straight Wimbledon final—conceded after the match. “[Alcaraz] had it all today.”
Why the disparity in playing levels today, after what most experts predicted would be an evenly fought war of attrition, endurance, and strategy? The obvious culprit would be the knee surgery Djokovic had on June 5 to repair the torn medial meniscus he suffered during the French Open. Djokovic has worn a sleeve on his repaired leg throughout the tournament—but if he was pushing his recovery faster than strictly advised, he also had an extraordinarily easy path to the final, with easy matches and a walkover. And then, of course, there’s age: Alcaraz is 21, arguably at the exact apex of his career in terms of fitness, and perhaps—this is almost frightening to consider—still gaining and growing in terms of court wisdom and playmaking strategy.
“In an interview when I was 11 or 12 years old, I said that it was a dream of mine to win Wimbledon,” Alcaraz said after the match. “I’m fulfilling that dream—for me, this is the most beautiful tournament, the most beautiful court, and the most beautiful trophy.” Then we had a brief—but crucial—insight into both Alcaraz’s humility and his edge: When asked what it was like to join the great roster of tennis legends who have won both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year—players like Laver, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Djokovic—Alcaraz demurred. “I don’t consider myself a champion yet,” he said—and when the crowd on Centre Court simply wasn’t having that kind of talk, clarified: “Not that kind of champion.”
If Djokovic, though, was lacking in this or that, Alcaraz had this or that in abundance, dominating the match with speed, power, surprise, finesse, energy, and confidence. And while many of the games were hard-fought, the outcome always seemed inevitable. This was Alcaraz’s fourth grand slam final, and he’s won all four: the 2022 US Open, this year’s French Open, and Wimbledon twice in a row.
Up next for Alcaraz: The Olympics, where he’ll play both singles and—notably—doubles with the legendary Nadal. But first, though, some football: The newly crowned repeat-champion of Wimbledon was asked after the match who he was predicting to win the final of the European Championships, beginning in a few hours. Alcaraz was skillfully evasive and diplomatic in his response, saying (after a long hesitation) only: “I’ve already done my job—so… let’s see the football.”
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
