The 20-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in a classic final that felt like a changing of the generational guard.
His defeat of Novak Djokovic felt like a changing of the generational guard.
Not many men have won Wimbledon in the last 20 years. Roger Federer lifted the tournament’s silver trophy eight times; Novak Djokovic, seven. Throw in a couple victories each for Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray and you have an extremely short list. So Carlos Alcaraz, in defeating Djokovic in five sets on Sunday under the gaze of Prince William, Brad Pitt, and other gathered royalty, has not merely joined a very exclusive club. He appears to have broken, at long last, the stranglehold that those four other players, and particularly the Big Three of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, have exerted over Wimbledon and everywhere else in tennis this century.
The Spanish sensation has done it ????????@carlosalcaraz triumphs over Novak Djokovic, 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in an all-time classic#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/sPGLXr2k99— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 16, 2023
Djokovic has been beaten before. But this match felt different. There is something inexorable about Alcaraz, as if the Spaniard has endless reserves of power in his deceptively trim frame. There is, too, a mental indomitability that is almost frightening to behold in someone who is only 20 years old, his close-set eyes and heavy brow giving the impression that his focus is tunneling ever tighter, that there is not a single thought in his head but that little yellow ball and how to bash it.
