The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won the lawn tennis classic in Wimbledon for the first time and prevented Novak Djokovic’s eighth triumph. The 20-year-old prevailed in an epic and high-class final against Djokovic 1: 6, 7: 6 (8: 6), 6: 1, 3: 6, 6: 4 and thus celebrated his second Grand Slam -Title. Alcaraz had already won the US Open last year. With his triumph in Wimbledon, Alcaraz also defended first place in the world rankings.
Djokovic would have caught up with record winner Roger Federer with a win in London. In addition, with his 24th success in one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, he would have set the record of the Australian Margaret Court. But nothing came of it. Alcaraz converted his first match point after 4:42 hours and was crowned king of Wimbledon. He also took revenge for his semi-final defeat at the French Open.
For Djokovic it was the first defeat at Wimbledon after 34 wins in a row. The 36-year-old Serb had recently won the grass classic four times in a row. Before losing to Alcaraz, Djokovic had last lost in the quarter-finals in London in 2017 when he had to retire against Czech Tomas Berdych injured at the beginning of the second set. Marketa Vondrousova surprisingly won the women’s title on Saturday. The 24-year-old Czech won the final against the Tunisian Ons Jabeur 6: 4, 6: 4 and, according to the organizers, was the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon title.
It was Vondrousova’s first victory in a Grand Slam tournament. Jabeur (28), on the other hand, lost in the final like last year and cried bitter tears afterwards. The duel Djokovic against Alcaraz had been waiting for every two weeks in Wimbledon. And it kept what it promised. Djokovic’s first service game lasted seven minutes. But after that, Alcaraz initially seemed a bit lost on the most prestigious tennis court in the world.
Djokovic pulled away 5-0. Alcaraz only managed to win the first game after 32 minutes with a nice passing ball. The spectators cheered loudly – but two minutes later Djokovic won the first set 6-1. Alcaraz then sat on his chair and looked around in disbelief. This was not how he had imagined his first final on the holy turf. But Alcaraz shook himself and now increased. Djokovic, on the other hand, took a little mental break after the almost flawless first set. This is how the match finally developed that everyone had been looking forward to. Now the duel of the generations finally lived up to expectations. Alcaraz found his form, when the score was 3: 3 he even forced Djokovic to dive and scored the point.
The spectators were beyond excited. Djokovic tried everything, but Alcaraz couldn’t be shaken off. On the contrary. At the end of the second set, something happened that hardly anyone would have thought possible: Djokovic lost a tiebreak in a Grand Slam tournament. He had previously won 15 tie-breaks in a row in Melbourne, Paris and Wimbledon, proving his inimitable nerves of steel. But this time Alcaraz fended off a set ball and won the tie break 8:6. After 1:59 hours of play, he equalized the set with a fantastic return winner.
The jubilation on Center Court was as great as if England had just won the World Cup for the first time since 1966. Now Alcaraz played like he was intoxicated. If he was still plagued by cramps from the third set in the semifinals of the French Open, he was now fully there. The world number one managed a quick break, the momentum was finally on his side. And then came the fifth game in the third set. Djokovic’s service game alone lasted 26 minutes – as long as a whole set on grass. It was a debut 13 times before Alcaraz used his seventh break ball and pulled away 4-1.
A little later he took a 2-1 lead from the eyes of Spanish King Felipe VI. Djokovic left the court for a toilet break and to collect himself. And indeed the Serb fought his way back into the game. He made the break at 3:2 and another at 6:3. So the decision had to be made in the fifth set. And there, too, the two tennis titans gave nothing. Almost every point was hard fought, one spectacular rally followed the next.
It was a magic moment in tennis that Alcaraz and Djokovic offered to around 15,000 spectators on the sold-out Center Court. Alcaraz made the decisive break in the fifth set to make it 2-1, Djokovic then hammered his racket against the net post in frustration and received a warning. But nothing helped. On that day, Alcaraz was just too strong even for Djokovic.
