Carlos Alcarazs Wimbledon victory heralds a new era in tennis

Carlos Alcaraz at the Gentlemens Singles Trophy after his victory over Novak Djokovic on day fourteen of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Photo: John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images

Not many men have won Wimbledon in the last 20 years. Roger Federer lifted the tournament silverware eight times; Novak Djokovic, seven. Throw in a couple of wins for each of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray and you have a very short list. So Carlos Alcaraz, enter defeated Djokovic in five sets on Sunday under the gaze of Prince William, Brad Pitt and other assembled royals, has not only joined a very exclusive club. He seems to have finally broken the stranglehold that these other four players, and especially the big three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, have exercised over Wimbledon and everywhere else in tennis this century.

Djokovic has been beaten before. But this match felt different. There’s something inevitable about Alcarazi, as if the Spaniard has an endless supply of deceptive finishing. Only 20 years old, there is also a mental indomitability that is almost scary to watch, his closely set eyes and heavy eyebrows giving the impression that his concentration is tunneling ever tighter, that there is no thought inside. his head but that little yellow ball and how to hit it.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz (L) reacts after beating Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in their men’s singles final tennis match on the final day of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images

He needed both of those qualities to win against Djokovic, who started the match breezily and won the first set 6-1 by doing the usual Djokovic things: racing all over the court and stretching his flexible limbs like Mr. Fantastic to avoid a groundstroke. could possibly get past him. He couldn’t get a drop shot, and there wasn’t a ball in the corner that he couldn’t turn back.

Alcaraz was frustrated and confused. He used a long and grinding second set to figure out his opponent, though it misleadingly suggested that Djokovic was some puzzle to solve, a complex lock that required an artistic key, when what really happened was that Alcaraz simply overpowered him and took the battering ram. For the great defensive wall built by Djokovic. In addition to being pretty good defensively himself, Alcaraz is a killer, constantly looking for moments where he can pounce on the ball and send it straight to hell or mix up a dropshot that dies on the Wimbledon grass. He won the second set in a nervy semifinal (Djokovic doesn’t usually lose them) and beat the Serbian 6-1 in the third.

As is his wont, Djokovic found a mysterious extra gear in the fourth set, turning the psychological makeup of the match on its head. In the past he had been on his back sometimes literally, so when he lost his footing chasing Alcarazs bullets, now he took all his tricks and restored a terrifying consistency. Imagine how depressing it is to see your enemies rise from the dead like this, pulling together like a T-1000 Terminator 2 who was last seen shattered into a million pieces! For all his fearlessness, Alcaraz faltered and fell, 6-3.

But Alcaraz has its own hidden gears. Early in the fifth set, he won a series of tense, frantic rallies that turned the tide for good, mixing his cannon fire with drop shots and traps and improbable returns that left Djokovic running wild and, for once, watching. his 36 years. That Alcaraz was able to physically impose himself on his opponent is perhaps no surprise given their age difference; the fact that he could withstand the gravity of Djokovic’s mental discipline suggests that he really is already a rarity in his class and that a generational shift is finally upon us.

At least sport seems to be deserved. There were times when it was hard to tell the all-white players apart because they’re basically the same height and have the same close-cropped brown hair and scruffy beard. It was as if a single person was playing against themselves, hitting the ball back and forth across the net in an endless rally, and it was impossible to predict who would win.