Carlos Alcaraz has won Wimbledon for the first time in his career. The Spanish number 1 of the world dethroned Serbian champion Novak Djokovic after a stunning finale at Wimbledon’s Centre Court 1-6, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
Alcaraz is the third Spaniard after Manolo Santana (1966) and Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010) who has won the Grand Slam tournament in London.
Alcaraz is the 2nd youngest player who has ever won the tournament at the age of 20 years and 72 days who has won the title. Only Boris Becker (1985, 1986) and Bjorn Borg (1976) were younger when they won Wimbledon.
Djokovic’s first loss since 2017
For Djokovic, it’s the first loss since 2017 when he was forced to retire in the quarterfinals. Djokovic has won Wimbledon 7 times.
He has since, won 34 matches in a row and had a 45-match unbeaten run on Centre Court. Djokovic lost on Centre Court for the last time in 2013.
Alcarez hoped to control his nervosity this time after his disappointing loss against the Serb in the semis of Roland Garros.
But the Spaniard wasn’t having the best start on Centre Court. He had the opportunity to break the first game of Djokovic but was trailing the Serb after that.
Alcaraz tried to overpower Djokovic by attacking. The Serbian fended off the attack with relative ease. Alcaraz lost his serve immediately and was trying to get into the zone.
Will the real Alcaraz please stand up
The Spaniard refound his game in the 2nd set and used his feared drop shot on multiple occasions. In the tie-break that followed, Djokovic lost a 3-0 lead and a setpoint at 6-5 and Alcaraz took advantage of that.
After winning 15 tie-breaks in a row, Djokovic lost for the first time in a long time at a Grand Slam tournament.
As the Spaniard picked up steam, Djokovic was in a rut and trying to break the flow of Alcaraz. But to no avail, he lost a 26-minute long game at 1-3 with no more than 13 deuces. The Serb was mentally broken and Alcaraz finished the 3rd set with ease.
Djokovic went to the dressing room for 7 minutes after that. The pause didn’t work out so well because at 0-1 he was made to work to prevent his serve getting broken. The Serb regained his confidence, attacked Alcaraz’s game, and broke the Spaniard at 2-2 and 5-3.
The fifth set was the perfect ending to a thriller
The 5th set started with a lot of beautiful rallies. Alcaraz broke the Serbian’s serve at 1-1. Djokovic was putting up a fight but even under high pressure Alcaraz kept playing his normal game and in the deciding phase of the match and when the Serb hit the net, Alcaraz fell to the ground and celebrated his deserved win.
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