No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the Wimbledon final lived up to the hype. And then some.
In a thrilling conclusion to the 2023 Championships, Carlos Alcaraz went the distance with Novak Djokovic and pulled off a 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 upset on Sunday afternoon. With an 85-minute second set and a 26-minute game in the third set, the match lasted four hours and 43 minutes before Alcaraz lifted the trophy at the All-England Club for the first time in his career.
Everyone assumed that Alcaraz would win Wimbledon…at some point. No one–not even Alcaraz, himself–expected it would be this soon. After all, the 20-year-old was playing just his fourth-ever grass-court tournament.
“(It) feels great,” he assured. “It’s a dream come true for me, being a Wimbledon champion; something that I really wanted. Honestly, I didn’t expect to get it really soon. Right now (it) is the happiest moment of my life, that’s for sure. Probably in five years will change. Right now, I’m 20, I didn’t live too many situations like this, so I’m going to enjoy this moment.
“Beating Novak, winning (the) Wimbledon championship is something that I dream about since I [started playing] tennis. That’s why is the biggest moment of my life.”
Alcaraz is absolutely right that beating Djokovic in particular made it all the more amazing. The 36-year-old had won four Wimbledon titles in a row (seven overall) and victories earlier this season at the Australian Open and French Open gave him the all-time lead in men’s singles slams with 23 and put him halfway to the calendar-year Grand Slam.
Djokovic certainly came close to making more history.
The world No. 2 dominated the opening set and seemed to have control of the second when he led 3-0 in the tiebreaker. He brought up a set point with Alcaraz serving at 5-6 but uncharacteristically netted a backhand. Alcaraz stole the set two points later.
Djokovic never played from ahead throughout the remainder of the match, but he still had chances. After losing the third set but recovering to take the fourth, the Serb earned a break point in the second game of the fifth. The opportunity came and went, however, and Djokovic dropped serve in the next game. With the lead in hand, Alcaraz served it out the rest of the way–capping off his triumph with an especially impressive hold at 5-4 that featured an incredible backhand volley winner at 15-all.
“Credit to Carlos,” Djokovic said. “Amazing poise in the important moments. For someone of his age to handle the nerves like this, be playing attacking tennis, and to close out the match the way he did…. I thought I returned very well that last game, but he was just coming up with some amazing, amazing shots.”
Alcaraz’s reward for such heroics is a second major title (he also won the U.S. Open in 2022) in addition to maintaining the No. 1 ranking. It also gives him belief that not even all of his past accomplishments could give.
“Probably that I’m really capable of doing the things that I did today,” the Spaniard responded when asked what he learned about himself. “Probably before this match, I thought that I wasn’t ready to beat Djokovic in five sets, an epic match like this–stay good physically or good mentally about five hours against a legend. Probably I learned today about myself today.
“Before this match, I thought I can’t beat Novak. That’s obvious. But after this epic match, let’s say, yeah, I think different. Probably it changes my mind a little bit after this match.”
nice one, Carlos