Carlos Alcaraz’s defeat by Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon is a turning point for tennis

WIMBLEDON — This wasn’t a passing of the torch. It was more like grabbing a torch, followed by a sprint around the bend and then another mile or two further.

Last year, Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic by a margin in the Wimbledon men’s final, capitalizing on a few rare mistakes from the now 24-time Grand Slam champion to win a back-and-forth five-set saga that lasted almost five hours. .

He walked away with that title. On Sunday, he hammered, danced and drop-shot his way to a second consecutive Wimbledon men’s singles title. This was a 6-2, 6-2 7-6(7-4) thrashing of Djokovic and his surgically repaired right knee, on a court the Serb has largely owned for more than a decade.

If something happens twice, it is no longer an accident, knee injury or not.

A deteriorating joint is something that a 37-year-old champion who has played professional tennis for twenty years must deal with.

It’s bad luck. It’s also life in the tennis twilight, as so many others who have experienced it can attest. It’s the kind of slow dying of the light that gives a player like 21-year-old Alcaraz — a generational talent who plays with a joy that so many other players long for — the opportunity to grab a torch and run with it. the sport.

For the better part of a decade, Djokovic has been the dominant player. Even last year, when Alcaraz took him out on Center Court, it was the only setback in one of his best seasons. He won Grand Slam titles at the Australian, French and US Opens; he won the season-ending Tour final; At the end of the year he had a record next to his name on the rankings for the eighth time.

All at the age of 36.

But he is now 37.

And in seven magical weeks, starting in Paris in late May and ending on Sunday on the sport’s most famous court, Alcaraz made it all seem like the final great chapter in the most decorated and accomplished career in the modern era of tennis, which began in 1968.

Djokovic can get up again. He has enjoyed great success at the All England Club in the past fortnight when few had even tried. By the time he defends his US Open title in New York at the end of August, he should be as good as a 37-year-old fighting to keep his body in tune.

But forget all that for a moment. With this victory, Alcaraz joined one of the most exclusive clubs in men’s tennis. He became the rare player who can win on the slow red clay of Roland Garros in June and then repeat the trick on the slippery grass of SW19 in July.

Rod Laver. Björn Borg. Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer. Djokovic. And now Alcaraz. That’s it in the Open Era. With an extra seat at the end, they fit into a booth in one of the pubs in Wimbledon Village.

Alcaraz wins Wimbledon for the second year in a row (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)

“A huge honor for me,” said the Spaniard, holding the winner’s trophy in the late afternoon sun. “Great champions.”

Then he said he’s not one of them yet. He still has a lot of work to do.

He is off to a very good start.

Djokovic called Alcaraz’s victory ‘inevitable’, after twelve days in which the Serb had appointed his surgeon. the physiotherapist who supervised his rehabilitation after meniscus surgery on June 5, look like real masters of the trade. By the time he sent Lorenzo Musetti off on Friday for his 10th Wimbledon final and 37th Grand Slam final, he seemed to be floating across the court, as if the operation had taken place in the distant past.

In recent years he had won Grand Slam titles with tears in an abdominal muscle and a hamstring. Today at Wimbledon he was about to do it, less than six weeks after knee surgery.

Then Alcaraz appeared on the other side of the net.

This wasn’t the nervous, first-time Wimbledon finalist who lost the first five matches of the final 12 months ago before somehow recovering from that early blitz. Alcaraz is no longer a boy wonder, and on Sunday he was a man with a championship to defend and a chance to bring the sport to a standstill.

Alcaraz pushed this shot over the net to score the winner (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

“He was better than me in every aspect of the match,” Djokovic said. This final could have an asterisk, one that could get bigger if Djokovic returns to the player he was before the knee surgery, or even a figment of that player’s imagination. For now it is an assessment without blemish. “Movement. He hit the ball beautifully. He was better from the start.”

Djokovic served first. Ten minutes later he was still serving and fighting with everything he had to win what is so often the meaningless first game of a match. They went back and forth, through seven deuces and five chances for Alcaraz to break.

Alcaraz fired his first crazy shot of the day halfway through those twelve minutes: a scorching forehand down the line as Djokovic raced over the net. Djokovic didn’t even bother to turn his head. It’s the shot Alcaraz makes when he feels his magic.

Djokovic’s chest rose and fell between the points, his gasps audible from 70 meters away. No wonder he was half a step late to catch up on a volley, the ball diving under the net before a stealthy backhand swing of his racket sent it into the netting. He then sent an easy forehand wide. He put himself in a hole – a hole he would spend the next 135 minutes digging himself out of.

Alcaraz dragged Djokovic across a court he has made into his living room (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)

He then reflected on last year’s epic five-set loss.

“WIt was toe to toe,” Djokovic said, with a mix of pride at having come so far so soon after his surgery and resignation at how dramatically the dynamic had changed in 12 months. “That wasn’t the case at all this year. It was all about him. He was the dominant force.”

It’s something everyone will probably have to get used to, if they haven’t already.

Italy’s Jannik Sinner, the 23-year-old Australian Open champion, remains world No. 1 because of the complicated formula the sport uses for its rankings. Alcaraz will probably be back there before long. Moreover, whatever the rankings say, the Spaniard is now the sport’s alpha dog, a four-time Grand Slam champion with a game that is still evolving. He is capable of tennis acrobatics which he enjoys almost as much as winning – and sometimes even more. He does both a lot.

“Shotmaker” doesn’t do justice to the flair of his game. Alcaraz is a shot maker, a player who must always innovate and improvise, pushing the boundaries of what he can do with a racket and a ball.

After collecting three championship points on his own, Alcaraz had to reset to push the final set to a tiebreak and fend off Djokovic one last time.

As he raced over the net, Djokovic shot a ball towards his shoelaces. Alcaraz jumped up and dropped the top of his racket into the grass. Somehow he just turned the ball over the net. He tried to suppress a grin as he walked back to the next point, shaking his finger at the crowd.

Alcaraz’s finesse at the front of the field made a huge difference (Frey/TPN via Getty Images)

Then he hit a second serve at 200 km/h as if those three match points had never happened, and then it was the tiebreak and then it was deja vu from Paris. Alcaraz climbed into the stands again, joined a group with his team, a triple hug with his parents, and then the longest hug of all with Juan Carlos Ferrero, the former world number 1, his coach and tennis father since he used to be. 14.

He knew what he had accomplished when he rose into the rarefied air of the French Open-Wimbledon doubles club, ready to sink into another year as champion of the sport’s most important tournament.

He is on his way to where he wants to go and is still emerging even though he is already a star.

“It’s good for tennis to have new faces,” he said.

Especially him, the smartest new face of them all.

(Photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)