Five weeks after going under a surgeon’s knife Novak Djokovic had the grave misfortune to encounter a sporting phenomenon with an axe. These wounds will take an awful lot longer to heal.
This was brutal and beautiful, savage and compelling. If there were any doubts around the blurring of eras and the passing of batons in men’s tennis, then they were countered by a sharp reality here on Centre Court: this is the time of Carlos Alcaraz.
Last year he and Djokovic treated us to a five-set classic, but Alcaraz’s retention of that glowing, golden trophy was different for the one-sided brilliance with which he dismantled the greatest to ever do it for the loss of just 10 games.
It was the most remarkable way to explode a truism that has stood for the better part of two decades. Because, quite simply, you do not bully Djokovic. You can break his serve, but you never break his spirit.
Unless you are Carlos Alcaraz. He truly dominated the body and mind of a 24-time Grand Slam champion who had walked on court in pursuit of new layers of history and then left in need of a long lie down, having incurred one of the heaviest beatings of his garlanded career. Only Rafael Nadal at the 2020 French Open has dished out such a hiding in his 36 previous Slam finals.
Carlos Alcaraz (pictured) triumphed once again at Wimbledon after beating Novak Djokovic
Alcaraz truly dominated the body and mind of a 24-time Grand Slam champion on Sunday
Alcaraz dismantled the greatest to ever do it for the loss of just 10 games on Centre Court
We might choose to introduce a little context at this juncture – it was testament to Djokovic’s depths of resolve that he could reach the final so soon after a knee operation. Maybe this was a step too far on the back of such fraught preparation.
Or maybe those difficulties only influenced the width of the scores and not the outcome, because it is tough to imagine anyone living with the 21-year-old who stood on the other side of the net.
He has some distance to travel to match Djokovic’s numbers, but already he is moving at wonderful speed, given he now has four Slams to his name and the only men of the Open era who could say the same at that age are Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander.
With Alcaraz’s victories coming on three different surfaces, factoring in his win at the French Open last month, it certainly puts an incongruous slant on the world rankings that place him behind Jannick Sinner and Djokovic.
Watching him claim the Wimbledon crown for a second time provided an entirely different view. ‘It is a dream for me,’ Alcaraz said in the immediate aftermath.
‘In an interview when I was 10 or 11 years old I said my dream is to win Wimbledon so I’m repeating my dream. This is beautiful.’
There have been times across the past fortnight when it was possible to doubt this conclusion, because Alcaraz has been slow in making his way into matches here and rarely has he hit his higher gears. It was a similar tale at Roland Garros.
But champions rise when it matters and he rose high, especially via his serve, with 37 points won from the 44 first deliveries that hit their target, and the 30 winners that followed elsewhere, mostly in the form of a vastly improved forehand. Combined, they left Djokovic scrambled in his thoughts.
The Serbian tried everything to break that wall – aggression from the baseline, charges to the net, attrition through long, patient rallies and infinite returns, and none of it yielded satisfying answers.
He has some distance to travel to match Djokovic, but already he is moving at wonderful speed
You do not bully Djokovic. You can break his serve, but not his spirit – unless you’re Alcaraz
The Spaniard had bounced from foot to foot like a boxer in the moments before the first bell
The single time Alcaraz seemed rattled was when he served for the match at 5-4 in the third and stood at 40-0 with three championship points.
What followed was a startling wobble, because Alcaraz somehow coughed up his only break of the match. But by the time they reached the tiebreak, he was back to his old self and the inevitable was sealed by a Djokovic return into the net.
The preceding couple of hours had seen an Alcaraz masterclass in the art of attacking tennis.
At the coin toss, the Spaniard had bounced from foot to foot like a boxer in the moments before the first bell, refusing to take his eyes off Djokovic, and the fire was carried into the match. It had been a hallmark of last year’s epic final that Alcaraz initially failed to handle the occasion and went 5-0 down before waking up to his opportunity. Here, he set off like a man with no time to lose.
Within three points he had Djokovic dropping into the splits for a return, within four he was fist pumping and within seven he had hit winners off both flanks and earned his first shot at a break. He would require a further four to take the game and the message had been sent.
Into the second game and Alcaraz had a serve clocked at 136mph – his fastest of the tournament – and then he broke again in the fifth for 4-1 via a Djokovic double fault. The Serbian looked utterly bewildered.
His search for a new approach repeatedly took him to the net, where he had won 15 points from 15 such adventures in the first set of his semi-final against Lorenzo Musetti. But against this guy it was an exercise in self-harm – his success rate in the first set was a dismal two from 10. Alcaraz was simply welcoming him in for a pummelling.
The Serb tried everything to break Alcaraz down – but nothing yielded satisfying answers
For Djokovic (right), an eighth Wimbledon title will have to wait, and so too a 25th Slam
For Alcaraz, already a Grand Slam winner on three surfaces, there’s no time like the present
Another break of the Djokovic serve came in the first game of the second set and one more at 4-2 told the story of the match in microcosm – Djokovic had been poised to go 40-0 on his serve but saw his deft drop shot retrieved by the knots of Alcaraz’s strings before the point good away. A double fault and a couple of rasping winners later and it was 5-2.
The third was far closer, both in scores and to Djokovic’s true level, shown when he immediately retrieved the break he sustained at 4-4, but there was no escaping when the axeman came for him again in the tiebreak.
For Djokovic, an eighth Wimbledon title will have to wait, and so too a 25th Slam to move past Margaret Court in the all-time standings. With a fit body, he will surely get there.
For Alcaraz, there really is no time like the present.
