Epic Carlos Alcaraz v Novak Djokovic Wimbledon final announces next great rivalry of tennis

In only fleeting glimpses midst it all did Carlos Alcaraz let us see that there remains a young man still residing within the body of a Wimbledon champion. When he got up off the ground, for instance, having closed out the final game and claimed his title, he picked up a tennis ball and whacked it, right-footed, into the crowd. Hey – just like it was all fun.

The way he played out that last game too. Did that require a young man’s fearlessness? Would a more experienced campaigner have thought twice about dropping from the baseline at 15-0 down – having only been behind because the very point before another similar drop shot from the back of the court had fallen into the net?

How incredibly cool and uncluttered is a mind that can even contemplate doing that?

Yet it is not just about youth. Youth has long been failing against Novak Djokovic. “It’s great to be part of this new generation,” Djokovic had said after beating a 21-year-old Jannik Sinner in his semi-final. It was like he was taunting the up-and-comers – where are ya?

Finally, one of the new generation has risen to the challenge – and he had to rise to it again and again. He had to lift himself after being humiliated in the first set. That experience alone would have finished off most contenders. He had to rise again in the second when Djokovic dragged him into the tie-break – the place where he traditionally dismantles contenders – and was set point up at 6-5. And then he had to come again, having let Djokovic back in in the fourth, and finally he had to stay high to finish off the match in the fifth. And all that over nearly five hours’ combat with the best (statistically, at least) male player of all time.

That Djokovic was the man that Alcaraz had to conquer was the stamp of class. The defeat of Djokovic was the ultimate confirmation that Centre Court had witnessed the birth of a great Wimbledon career.

Alcaraz already had one grand-slam title to his name, but that was in the US Open last year when Djokovic was absent. Now he has proved himself against the best in class. This wasn’t quite a passing of the torch; Djokovic won’t be letting it go after just one single runner-up medal, but that is a firm hand that Alcaraz now has upon it.

History suggests that young winners develop into serial winners. Boris Becker was the youngest men’s Wimbledon winner at 17. Bjorn Borg won his first major title when he was 18. Rafa Nadal and Pete Sampras had only just turned 19; John McEnroe was 20.

It doesn’t take a brave reader of the game to suggest that Alcaraz is the sport’s present and the future. Of greater intrigue is how many years we will now have of Alcaraz versus Djokovic – because this is a rivalry to lift the game back to where it left off with Djokovic versus Nadal and Roger Federer.

Until Sunday, Djokovic had appeared to be one of the most dominant athletes on the planet and his passage through the Wimbledon draw had been a procession. Furthermore, the men’s singles had lacked titanic matches; the great big emotional confrontations that are the foundation stones of grand-slam contests were thin on the ground. So we talked about the new generation as a concept and a hope for the future.

That conversation is now finished, because Alcaraz has arrived – and Alcaraz versus Djokovic happened to be the best match of the entire men’s singles draw. They combined for one of the all-time epic Wimbledon finals.

So this is tennis’s new fix. Tennis doesn’t need to worry that Djokovic is too dominant. It suddenly has a sweet spot: two players way ahead of the rest of the game.

Thus, the best compliment that you can pay Alcaraz is that he beat Djokovic at his own game. He held a mirror up to the Serb and showed him how hard it has to be to beat him.

There was a point, at 5-4 down on Djokovic’s serve in the second set, where he pulled off an act of escapology that Alcaraz just couldn’t believe.

Yet the magic of Alcaraz was that he gave it straight back. The second set was a titanic battle with Alcaraz fighting to stay alive and Djokovic showing him how hard it would be to even win a single point off him: Alcaraz playing increasingly accurately, Djokovic chasing everything down, Alcaraz thinking he had a toehold in the game, Djokovic informing him otherwise.

That is Djokovic’s game and there is a long line of new-generation players who have failed to survive the ordeal. Alcaraz, however, sucked up the blows and returned them. He played the great man at his own game.

This was a battle of the great retrievers and we finally saw Djokovic having his spirits sapped rather than the other way around.

It was high-stakes tennis of the highest order, Centre Court elevated, a great new star establishing himself, the game elevated too. Djokovic hadn’t been beaten on Centre Court for a decade, so yes, here was the start of a new era.

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But was it the changing of the guard? You’d have to hope not. If you love tennis and you are emotionally moved by a game played out as relentlessly and intensely as this was, you wouldn’t want anything to change.

You would want these two titans fighting battles like this for years to come. You can’t possibly want the Djokovic days to end; you can only want the Djokovic-Alcaraz era to stay.

– The Times

Originally published as Epic Carlos Alcaraz v Novak Djokovic Wimbledon final announces next great rivalry of tennis